Canadian Women's Foundation: Signal For Help by Juniper Park\TBWA

The Canadian Women’s Foundation and Women’s Funding Network have launched Signal for Help in Canada and the US, to help combat the increase of gender-based violence as a result of home isolation.

Signal for Help is an online initiative and tool designed to provide women who are confined to their homes with their abusers a method to discreetly communicate over any video call that they need help.

The signal is a simple single-handed gesture that symbolically entraps the thumb in the palm and provides those at risk with a discreet way to let family, friends, and colleagues know that they need help. It was intentionally designed as a continuous hand movement that could be made easily visible on a video call - due to the dramatic increase in usage of personal and professional video calls during this time. Instructional social posts were designed with a two-step visualization of how to perform the Signal for Help.

The assets are available in English, French, and Spanish at canadianwomen.org/signal-for-help/ in Canada, and womensfundingnetwork.org/signalforhelp/ in the US. They can be easily downloaded by organizations and individuals to share.