This February, we are proud to launch Healthily Ever After, a 12-day public education and engagement campaign that reimagines Valentine’s Day as an opportunity to deepen our collective understanding of what healthy relationships truly look like. Running from February 2 to February 14, the campaign invites our entire community to explore the 12 principles of healthy relationships:

Through videos, stories, digital resources, podcasts, and interactive content, Healthily Ever After provides accessible tools that empower individuals of all ages to build, recognize, and sustain relationships rooted in dignity, respect, and emotional safety. The campaign also aims to raise essential funding for our prevention programs with girls, boys, young women, and young men.

A core element of Shifting Gears—and a critical focus of this campaign—is our intentional work with boys and young men.

We believe prevention is most effective when everyone is part of the solution. By engaging boys and young men as participants, and leaders, we help shift the social norms that shape their earliest understandings of masculinity, power, emotion, and connection. Our programs focus on building:

  • Emotional literacy
  • Healthy communication and conflict skills
  • Respect-based attitudes
  • Understanding of consent and boundaries
  • Critical thinking about harmful norms and stereotypes
  • The confidence to act as upstanders rather than bystanders

This work complements our long-standing commitment to supporting girls and young women to build self-worth, agency, and leadership skills. Together, these efforts strengthen the next generation’s ability to form connections that are safe, equitable, and free from harm.

Step 1 of 2
1. When my boundaries are clearly communicated in the relationship, they are consistently respected.
2. The relationship is built on mutual trust, and there is no monitoring or checking of personal communications or property.
3. The relationship actively supports my freedom to pursue my own goals, friendships, and interests outside of the dynamic.
4. I feel affirmed and respected for who I am in this relationship; criticism is constructive, not shaming or humiliating.
5. I can openly and safely express difficult or negative feelings without fearing punishment or an extreme reaction.
6. When harm is done or mistakes are made, accountability is shared, and genuine efforts are made to repair the situation.
7. Conflicts in the relationship are resolved without the use of yelling, insults, threats, or manipulation.
8. The responsibilities and decision-making power within the relationship feel balanced and fair.
9. The relationship consistently makes me feel more secure, valued, and calm than I feel without it.
10. I feel peaceful, secure, and optimistic when I think about the future of this relationship.

Resources

 

Government of Canada:

Promoting safe intimate partner relationships – Canada.ca

Sub sections of this site include:

The Fourth R: Strategies for Healthy Youth Relationships
The Fourth R is a school-based evidence-based program that that promotes healthy relationships and targets dating violence, bullying, peer violence, and group violence.

Healthy relationships? Healthy teens
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
This website provides information about healthy youth relationships as well as further links to tips for parents on building and promoting healthy relationships with teenagers.

Healthy Relationships Training Module (HRTM) 
Promoting Relationships & Eliminating Violence Network (PREVNet)
The Healthy Relationships Training Module (HRTM) provides adults the training they need to help young people develop healthy social skills.

Learning to end abuse: Tools for Change 
Tools for Change Educator’s Website is a comprehensive listing of resources that promote healthy, equal relationships, reviewed and critiqued using a strengths-based model.

QMUNITY Gab Youth 
QMUNITY Gab Youth is a safe place for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans*, two-spirit, intersex, queer, questioning (queer) youth 25 years of age and under and their allies. This website link has information and resources on healthy relationships for youth.

A Guide for Healthy Dating Relationships 
University of Victoria 

Building and maintaining healthy relationships—whether with partners, family, friends, or colleagues—is a skill that can be learned and refined. In Canada, several national and regional organizations provide evidence-based tools, quizzes, and support services.

The following resources focus on different aspects of relationship health, from basic communication to navigating conflict.

1. General Relationship Health & Communication

These resources provide foundational “green flags” and tips for maintaining healthy dynamics in all areas of life.

2. Specialized & Identity-Specific Resources

Relationships often involve unique dynamics based on identity, neurodiversity, or life stage.

  • AIDE Canada (Neurodiversity Focus): An excellent collection of toolkits specifically designed for neurodivergent individuals and their families. It covers personal boundaries, social skills, and sexual health.
  • Canadian Centre for Men and Families (CCMF): Focuses on the unique challenges men face in relationships, including resources for fathers undergoing separation, healthy masculinity, and social isolation.
  • QMUNITY (LGBTQ2S+ Focus): A BC-based hub with resources applicable across Canada, offering guidance on queer and trans relationship health, “Gab Youth” support, and community-building.

3. Crisis Support & Navigating Unhealthy Dynamics

If a relationship feels “yellow” or “red” flag, these organizations offer immediate, confidential support.

  • Hope for Wellness Help Line: Provides 24/7 mental health counseling and crisis intervention for all Indigenous peoples across Canada (1-855-242-3310). – Add this to resource phone # section
  • Canadian Women’s Foundation: Creators of the “Signal for Help,” they offer extensive resources on recognizing the signs of emotional and physical abuse and how to support a friend in an unhealthy relationship.

4. Interactive Tools & Training

  • YWCA Canada – “Is My Relationship Healthy?”: A user-friendly, interactive tool that helps you assess your relationship using a “traffic light” system (Green, Yellow, Red).
  • PREVNet: A national network of researchers and organizations providing training modules on how to promote healthy social skills and eliminate violence in youth relationships.