About Our Cause
Royal LePage real estate agents help Canadians find their dream home. For those who do not have a safe and peaceful home, Royal LePage is also there, helping families in the neighbourhoods where we live and work.
Violence against women and their children is a significant problem in all communities in Canada. We are proud to be working with women’s shelters and our national partners to provide safety and hope to women and children experiencing violence and abuse.
Research tells us the following:
- Violence against women happens in all cultures and religions, in all ethnic and racial communities, at every age, and in every income group
- Half of all women in Canada have experienced at least one incident of physical or sexual violence since the age of 161
- Every year in Canada, an estimated 360,000 children witness family violence2
- On any given day in Canada, 3000 women (and their 2500 children) are living in an emergency shelter to escape family violence3
- On average, every six days in Canada a woman is murdered by her intimate partner.4
- Collectively, Canadians spend $7.4 billion each year to deal with the aftermath of spousal violence. This figure includes immediate costs such as emergency room visits, future costs such as loss of income, and intangible costs such as pain and suffering.5
By supporting women’s shelters, we are ensuring that women and children have a safe place to go to escape domestic violence. With our national partners, we fund healthy relationship programs for youth and support programs that help women and children heal from their experiences of abuse and rebuild their lives.
For additional research on family violence, visit www.canadianwomen.org
2Behind Closed Doors: The Impact of Domestic Violence on Children, Joint report by UNICEF, The Body Shop International, and the Secretariat for the United Nations Secretary-General’s Study on Violence Against Children, 2006.
3Family Violence in Canada: A Statistical Profile 2009, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Statistics Canada, page 12.
4Homicide in Canada, 2009, Sara Beattie and Adam Cotter, Juristat, Volume 30, Number 3, Statistics Canada, page 14
5An Estimation of the Economic Impact of Spousal Violence in Canada, 2009..