We Believe You
There is help and support on PEI. Healing can start now.
NOTICE ON OUR SERVICES
PEIRSAC Counselling Waitlist Temporarily Paused - Navigation Support Still Available
As of May 1st, 2025, PEI Rape & Sexual Assault Centre is placing a temporary pause on our counselling waitlist. We ask you to check back for updates on August 1st, 2025. This difficult but necessary decision was made to ensure that survivors already waiting for care receive timely, trauma-informed therapy and that our staff can provide sustainable, high-quality services moving forward.
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Our populations have shifted drastically since PEIRSAC opened its doors in 1983, and especially over the past six years. As a trauma-based organization, we are ethically responsible for ensuring that our services reflect the real needs of the real people we serve, not just the legacy models we've inherited. That said, we hold deep gratitude for the decades of community care that brought us to this moment. We are joyfully indebted to the work that now allows us to adapt and grow.
During this pause, we are also restructuring our therapeutic program to reduce wait times in the future while keeping our commitment to trauma-informed, survivor-centred care at the heart of everything we do. This includes designing more accessible pathways into therapy and exploring new ways to meet the diverse healing needs of our community. We look forward to reopening our waitlist later this year with a stronger, more responsive system in place.
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Navigation Support Is Still Available
While the counselling waitlist is paused, we are still offering Client Support and System Navigation services because healing, justice, and safety take many forms.
We recognize that sexual violence is a systemic issue that can impact intersecting parts of a person’s life. Our Navigation Team is here to help survivors advocate for themselves, be a supporting voice, and access the support they need on their own terms.
We can walk beside you through:
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Accompaniment to police, court, or other authorities
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Support during Sexual Assault Evidence Kit (SAEK) procedures
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Advocacy and accompaniment to appointments related to sexual assault
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Connections to housing, income supports, community mental health, and other services
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General systems navigation, documentation assistance, and advocacy with service providers
If you’re unsure of what you need, that’s okay. Reach out. We’ll help you figure it out together.
To access Navigation Support or book a Navigation Support Session, call us at 1-902-369-8055
Please know that we believe you.
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Check out the FAQ page for more information.
PEI Rape and Sexual Assault Centre
We are a non-profit, government funded organization that provides services to individuals of all genders residing in PEI who have experienced recent or historic sexual assault and childhood sexual abuse. We do this by offering individual therapy, system navigation, and psychoeducation. We offer these services out of both our Charlottetown and Summerside offices, while supporting people across the Island. We also participate in and organize public education initiatives and community events that contribute to the prevention and awareness of sexual violence, including through organizing Sexual Assault Awareness Week every September.
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Sexual assault is any unwanted act of a sexual nature imposed on another person without their consent.
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Groups who are marginalized by society – including young women, transgender and gender non-conforming people, Black and Indigenous people, immigrants and refugees, sex workers, people living with disabilities, seniors, and people living in poverty – are at increased risk of sexual violence. Due to this and the additional systemic barriers that they may face in accessing healing, PEIRSAC also advocates for broader systemic change and recognizes the ways in which societal inequities like racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, and other forms of oppression directly impact survivors of sexual assault and can perpetuate sexual harm.
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PEIRSAC supports and advocates for survivors of all genders, sexualities, races, backgrounds, or beliefs. Our aim is to support healing both at the individual and community level, and to work towards spaces where all residents of PEI are safe from sexual violence. To achieve this we work collaboratively with, and in ways that empower, individuals and organizations.
Our Primary Services Include:
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Individual therapy for youth (12+) and adults of all genders (Note: Our waitlist is currently on pause while we restructure our therapeutic program)
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Men’s Psychoeducation Group and Check-in Group
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Psychoeducational information and community programming
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Referrals to other community support programs
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Systems navigation, including:
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Accompaniment to police, court, or other authorities
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Support during Sexual Assault Evidence Kit (SAEK) procedures
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Advocacy and accompaniment to appointments related to sexual assault
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Referrals to housing, income supports, community mental health, and other services
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General systems navigation, documentation assistance, and advocacy with service providers
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Please note that we do not operate a support line outside of office hours.
If you are feeling overwhelmed or just need someone to talk to, please contact:
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PEI Mental Health and Addictions Phone Line (24/7)
1-833-553-6983
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National Sexual Assault Support Line (24/7)
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Kid’s Help Phone (also for youth)
1-800-668-6868 Text: 686868
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Native Youth Crisis Hotline
REACH OUT
General Inquiries
please call or text 902-566-1864 or toll free 1-866-566-1864
Navigation Requests and Support
please call or text 902-368-8055 or toll free 1-888-368-8055
PLEASE NOTE: The Centre operates Monday to Friday from 9:00 am to 4:30 pm. If you call the general inquiries or counselling support line outside of office hours you will asked to leave a voice message and we will call you back on the next business day. Please indicate whether it's ok for us to leave you a voicemail.
While PEIRSAC supports and honours all survivors of sexual violence, we cannot forget or ignore the role that sexual violence has played throughout this country’s colonial history. Sexual violence has historically and contemporarily been used as a tool of domination and control against Indigenous people on Turtle Island and globally.
PEIRSAC acknowledges that we are operating on stolen land. Epekwitk, (Prince Edward Island) is the traditional and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq people. We respect the history, spirituality, and culture of the Mi’kmaq people who have lived on Epekwitk for over 15,000 years and still steward this land today.
PEIRSAC operates within an intersectional feminist framework. Our team is committed to ongoing internal work to better learn, unlearn, and shift to anti-colonial approaches. Within our work, we advocate for systemic and social change through advocacy, outreach, and education. We recognize this has been a gap in our Centre, and other sexual assault centres in Canada, and are committed to doing better and doing more in the years to come.
We gratefully acknowledge PEIRSAC’s core funder:
