SAFE Honoured with Achēv’s 2026 Strategic Partner Award
SAFE – Survivor Advocates for Empowerment is honoured to have been recognized with the Strategic Partner Award at Achēv’s 2026 Achēvment Awards.
The annual Achēvment Awards celebrate the achievements of
Achēv clients and recognize employers and community partners working together to create meaningful change. This year’s event was particularly significant as Achēv celebrates 35 years of serving communities.
For SAFE, this recognition represents something at the very heart of our organization: the importance of ensuring survivor voices and lived experience are part of the supports available to people impacted by gender-based violence.
A Partnership Built on the Value of the Peer
Through our partnership with Achēv, SAFE provides survivor-led peer support within programs including
RISE,
Stronger Together and
Women’s Connections and Empowerment.
Achēv reports that this work has helped more than 60 survivors of gender-based violence find safety, build skills and move toward financial independence through employment.
Behind that number are individual people, experiences and journeys.
SAFE Peers bring something unique to these programs. They bring lived experience.
A peer does not replace professional services. Instead, the peer adds another layer of support — someone who can listen without judgement, understand experiences that can be difficult to explain, and walk alongside another survivor as they determine what moving forward looks like for them.
Sometimes, simply knowing that the person beside you understands can make a difference.
Recognizing Our SAFE Peers
Stronger Together
Our relationship with Achēv demonstrates what can happen when community organizations bring different forms of expertise together.
Achēv brings programs, professional services and extensive experience supporting newcomers and communities. SAFE brings the perspective of survivors and peers with lived experience.
Together, we can create spaces where professional knowledge and lived experience complement one another — with the survivor and their individual needs remaining at the centre.
As SAFE Board Chair Liza Rodrigues shared in Achēv’s announcement:
“We are deeply honoured to receive Achēv’s Strategic Partner Award and grateful for a partnership that has given SAFE the opportunity to bring survivor-led peer support to the Peel, Halton and surrounding communities.”
We are grateful to Achēv for recognizing the value of the peer and for creating space for survivor voices within its programs. We look forward to continuing to grow this partnership and reaching more survivors together.
For survivors, by survivors.
Help Us Continue This Work
SAFE is a young, survivor-led non-profit organization, and there is much more work ahead.
Your support helps us continue developing survivor-led peer support, building community partnerships and ensuring lived experience has a meaningful voice in how survivors of gender-based violence are supported.
Support SAFE and help survivors support survivors.
https://www.survivor-advocates.org/donate-now
