Course Overview
Supporting Survivors of Sexualized Violence Training™ (SST) is a trauma-informed educational program created by Saskatoon Sexual Assault & Information Centre (SSAIC) designed to help participants respond to disclosures of sexualized violence with empathy, confidence, and care. This training recognizes that survivors may disclose to friends, family members, coworkers, service providers, educators, and community members — not only to therapists.
This training does not aim to educate participants on becoming trauma therapists. Instead, it equips everyday people and professionals with the knowledge, language, and skills needed to support survivors safely, respectfully, and without causing further harm.
Through a combination of lecture, small group work, and opportunities to practice new skills, participants will gain a deeper understanding of sexualized violence, its impacts on individuals and communities, and how social attitudes such as rape myths and victim-blaming shape survivors’ experiences. Emphasis is placed on trauma-informed communication, nervous system awareness, survivor-centred support, and connecting survivors to appropriate next steps and resources.
This training is appropriate for:
- Professionals who work with survivors (e.g., social services, education, healthcare, justice, community organizations)
- Volunteers and advocates
- Friends, family members, and partners of survivors
- Survivors who want to better understand trauma responses and support others
- Anyone who wants to become a safer, more informed, and more supportive person
No prior training or professional background is required.
Prerequisites
No prerequisites.
What You Will Learn
- 01Trauma-Informed Communication Skills
- The 4 C’s of trauma-informed communication
- Active listening skills in a trauma context
- Empathy and the 4 pillars of empathy
- Recognizing how tone, body language, and word choice communicate safety or judgment
- Shifting from victim-blaming language to supportive language
- 02Understanding Sexualized Violence
- Definitions of sexual abuse, sexual assault, and sexual harassment
- Grooming: stages, tactics, and how perpetrators maintain control
- Consent in Canada: Age of consent, close-in-age exceptions, and legal elements of consent
- Rape myths and victim-blaming
- Rape culture and the continuum of harm
- How harmful language and media narratives impact survivors
- 03Trauma & the Nervous System
- The autonomic nervous system (ANS)
- Fight, flight, freeze, and fawn responses
- Triggers, flashbacks, and the window of tolerance
- Impacts of sexualized violence
- Intersectionality and how identity affects vulnerability, access to support, and healing
- Intergenerational trauma and secondary survivors
- 04Supporting Survivors of Sexualized Violence
- Grounding and regulation strategies
- Key supportive messages during disclosure
- Do’s and don’ts when responding to survivors
- Case scenarios involving youth, adults, friends, and ongoing professional relationships
- 05Next Steps & Resources
- The three pillars of support: Reporting options and what to expect in the justice process, medical options and foresic kit information, and mental and emotional healing options
- Duty to report child sexual abuse
- Local resources in Saskatoon
Included With The Course
- Printed participant workbook.
- Eligibility for six (6) CE hours under most regulatory bodies. Check with your regulatory body to ensure SST qualifies for your professional requirements.
- Certificate of completion signed by the SSAIC facilitator(s).
Associated Certifications
Not applicable.
Frequently Asked Questions
We understand that you may have questions, and we’re here to help! Some of the most commonly asked questions about this course are covered below but if they don’t cover what you are looking for feel free to reach out to us through our contact page, and we’ll respond promptly to ensure you get the assistance you require. Your satisfaction is our priority, and we’re committed to making sure you have all the information necessary for a seamless experience.
All proceeds from this course are donated to the Saskatoon Sexual Assault & Information Centre (SSAIC) to support their services and programs. Through our partnership, we provide the training space at no cost and use our network to assist in the course reaching more individuals and organizations.
SSAIC is a registered charity. To donate directly to their organization, visit their donation page.
Yes, Supporting Survivors Training offers multiple modalities for learning, including individual reflection, lecture-style listening, small group work, and large group participation.
While SSAIC does their best to minimize triggering content, experiencing triggers is a risk of taking SST. Triggers are incredibly personal sensory experiences that are individual to every trauma survivor. This training will discuss experiences of sexualized violence, as well as the impacts of those experiences, including case scenarios of survivors disclosing violence. If that information doesn’t feel safe for you to hear, that is entirely normal and valid.
We are so sorry that you have experienced such a blatant violation; please know that you are important and valued by many. You are more than welcome to take this training as long as it feels (mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually) safe for you to do so.
Never. How much or little you choose to share is entirely your choice, and at no point during training will anyone be asked to self-disclose violence or self-identify as a survivor. Further, SSAIC actually discourages the sharing of intense traumatic details, as they do their best to minimize triggers as much as possible for the group.
Yes, a description of confidentiality is given at the beginning of training, including being discreet about who attends training and what is shared by participants during training. SSAIC also discusses confidentiality in the context of receiving disclosures from survivors as part of supporting in a trauma-informed way.
Unless we are police officers responsible for investigating a crime, it is not our job as support people to investigate a disclosure of sexualized violence. Additionally, as much as we wish we could, no one can "fix" the situation of sexualized violence. This training will equip attendees with the skills to respond to and support survivors in a trauma-informed way.
Yes, SST challenges attendees to analyze their own bias and preconceptions about survivors and sexualized violence, and goes into detail about harmful things that should never be said to survivors.
Yes, SST will cover responding to survivors of all ages and relationships to the participant. Additionally, if the majority of the group works with a specific population, the facilitators will tailor the examples more toward that group.
As a non-indigenous organization, SSAIC has utilized all of the teachings they’ve received to make SST as culturally responsive and inclusive as possible. There is a section that touches on intergenerational trauma and the impacts of colonization; please use care if these topics are particularly sensitive for you.
No; many more years of training would be required to do that!
Sexualized violence can be perpetrated through digital platforms, and while there is not a dedicated section, technology-facilitated sexualized violence is discussed.