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 raises essential support for our prevention programs with girls, boys, young women, and young men.

The Fundamental 5 As

Making and accepting ways to connect and give each other ATTENTION is one of the core components of a healthy relationship.

ACCEPTANCE means understanding and respecting each other’s strengths, “flaws”, beliefs, values, opinions… even if they differ between you.

Gratitude and APPRECIATION in all forms can keep you in tune and involved with the other person’s life. It should be conscious but easy effort.

When it comes to AFFECTION, everyone has their own ways (sometimes referred to as “love languages“) this can be comfortably expressed and received.

Last and never least, there should be ALLOWING of each person to be their authentic selves. Their own unique person, only further strengthened by a healthy relationship.

PLEASE NOTE: The quiz is a great place to start, but to continue your journey, we hope you find these (local) resources helpful:

Assaulted Women’s Helpline: (416)863-0511 and 1-866-863-7868

Text #SAFE (#7233)

Kids Helpline: (416) 586-5437 and 1-800-668-6868

Covenant House: 416-598-4898 and 1-800-435-7308

The 519 Centre: 416-392-6874

Toronto Rape Crisis Centre: 416-597-8808

Distress Centre Toronto: 416-408-4357

Rooted in Our Shifting Gears Framework

Healthily Ever After is part of our broader organizational approach called Shifting Gears—a lens that intentionally moves us from crisis response alone toward prevention, education, and long-term social change.

Shifting Gears acknowledges that preventing gender-based violence requires more than supporting survivors after harm has occurred. It requires shifting attitudes, behaviours, and norms that contribute to violence in the first place. This means expanding our work upstream: teaching the foundations of respect, consent, empathy, and equality early in life, and creating conditions where youth can thrive in relationships that honour their full humanity.

Different Types of Relationships

Recognizing that relationships come in all forms is important to be aware of as you navigate what is healthy for you. Healthy relationships should be part of your everyday interactions, and something you’re able to asses with anyone with whom you share a connection.

Romantic (monogamy, open, polygamy, asexual, casual, sexual, experimental etc.)
Friendship/Platonic
Family
Professional
Acquaintances
Situational

The work you owe yourself is establishing what healthy means to you. What’s important to you. What makes you feel like you have their Attention, Acceptance, Appreciation, Affection and Allowing… in whatever form is appropriate for any given relationship.

You also need to consider how healthy your relationship with self is. Check out our podcast to hear a bit more on this too:

Youth in Healthy Relationships

Teens and young adults face a bit of an unprecedented challenge as they navigate healthy relationships. Their life experience – with social media, online dating, mobile phones/cameras etc – is something with which their parents or teachers would not necessarily have first-hand experience at the same age in their lives.

However, youth have access to more information and support than ever, and if you are a parent or guardian of teens, you do too. However, it’s important to access information with a careful and critical eye.