Safe&Seen

Safe&Seen Initiative is developed in collaboration with North York Women’s Shelter (NYWS), a Toronto-based organization that provides emergency shelter, safety planning, counselling, and long-term support to women and children fleeing gender-based violence. Through this initiative, we aim to increase public awareness about gender-based violence, encourage conversations and allyship within communities, provide financial support to North York Women’s Shelter, and contribute to safer futures for women and children escaping violence.

This initiative aims to raise awareness and generate financial support for organizations helping survivors of gender-based violence. By selling awareness-focused T-shirts designed in collaboration with North York Women’s Shelter, the venture encourages public conversation around gender-based violence while raising funds that support shelter services and survivor assistance programs.

At the heart of Safe&Seen is a simple but powerful idea: the ampersand (&) in our name represents two people supporting one another. Formed by two human figures, it symbolizes connection and the belief that no woman should face gender-based violence alone.

The design expresses our mission directly. Being safe is a right. Being seen is what makes that safety real — witnessed, believed, and supported by the community around you by raising awareness. Every visual choice, from the warm, approachable typography to the human forms hidden in plain sight within the ampersand, reinforces this message of care and solidarity.

It is also a reminder that this issue lives close to home. In North York and in neighbourhoods everywhere, women continue to experience violence that too often goes unheard. Gender-based violence remains one of the most underreported and misunderstood social challenges in our communities.

When you support Safe&Seen, you are not contributing to a distant cause. You are standing beside someone in your own community — someone who deserves to be safe, and to be seen.