What works, and where to get help in the United States and Canada.
Part 5 of 6, about 8 minutes
Two things belong on a page like this. What actually reduces this behavior, and where to turn when it has already happened. Both exist, but neither gets the airtime the scandals do.
Among US high school students who dated in the past year, about one in ten reported sexual dating violence.1 The point of this page is the part that comes after that number: the programs that move it, and the people who pick up when you call.
Prevention is NOT a vibe. It is a curriculum. The good ones have evidence behind them. The programs below put the work on the group and the adults around it, not on the people getting hurt.
Coaches run twelve short weekly conversations, about fifteen minutes each, with their male athletes over a season, on respect, healthy relationships, and stepping in instead of standing by.2 It was tested in a cluster randomized controlled trial: athletes reported more positive bystander behavior, and follow-up found less perpetration of abuse.3 It is the athletics-specific program with an actual trial behind it, though CrimeSolutions rates the middle-school version Ineffective.
The card series downloads free from Futures Without Violence. A printed kit runs about thirty-five dollars, but you do not need it to start.4 Built for coaches. If you know one, send it to them.
A Canadian program from Calgary's Centre for Sexuality, for boys around thirteen to fifteen, run as weekly sessions across a school year. It is built to take apart the rigid-masculinity scripts that feed this behavior and to teach the skills to intervene.5 It is recognized as a promising practice for domestic-violence prevention, and evaluations show participants moving away from endorsing traditional-masculinity norms.6
The evidence is promising but early, not the same randomized-trial tier as Coaching Boys Into Men, and delivery is mostly Calgary and area. Treat it as a model worth pushing your own community to fund, not a sign-up link for everyone.
A Call to Men is a national violence-prevention organization built on engaging men and boys and dismantling the rigid “man box” model of masculinity, the same thing this site's Culture section is about. Its Live Respect curriculum gives coaches and mentors ready-made lessons to get boys examining those norms.
The evidence is real but thin. In a 2017 pilot of the curriculum, which A Call to Men wrote with Scholastic and the Verizon Foundation funded, nearly 300 male students took part, and the share who knew the meaning of consent rose from 19% to 75%, and the share who recognized how boys are taught to view women and girls as property rose from 21% to 90%.7 That is self-reported knowledge change from one internal study, not an independent trial and not the perpetration-reduction data behind Coaching Boys Into Men. A credible free curriculum from a serious organization, not a trial-backed program.
Tailored to students aged 10 to 18, taught directly or through paid A Call to Men workshops. Free guide first.
Prevention is not only the team's job. Here are resources for parents that are free, practical, and built for the dinner-table version of the same work.
Equimundo's Man Box research, built on Paul Kivel's “Act Like a Man Box,” is one of the main bodies of research behind the idea this whole site leans on. Their free tip sheet, made with Plan International, gives parents nine concrete ways to raise sons toward a healthy, connected masculinity instead of the rigid version that feeds this behavior.8
It is a guide, not a graded program. Read it in ten minutes, use it for years.
A Canadian nonprofit working on the same norms the programs above target. Its parent hub has free conversation tools and guides for talking to boys about respect, emotions, and consent.9
Practice-based and widely used in Canadian schools, not an RCT-backed curriculum. A model worth bringing to your own community.
A free online course from the body that handles abuse reporting in US Olympic and amateur sport, including USA Hockey. It teaches parents to recognize grooming, boundary violations, and misconduct, and how to report them.10
Worth the half hour, with a real limit: it is built around spotting and reporting abuse in sport, not the consent-and-entitlement education the programs above do. Use it for the reporting side, not as a substitute for them.
If someone is in immediate danger, call 911 or your local emergency number first. If a child is being abused, report to local authorities or child protective services. The lines below are for support, and for reporting where it applies. They do not replace the police.
In the USIn danger now
Free, confidential, 24/7, in English and Spanish.12
Search RAINN's national directory for a sexual assault service provider near you: counseling, advocacy, and in-person support in your area.13
For teens and young adults navigating dating abuse. Free, confidential, 24/7.15
Culturally grounded support for Native Americans and Alaska Natives experiencing domestic or dating violence. Free, confidential, 24/7.16
Handles abuse and misconduct in the US Olympic and Paralympic movement, which includes USA Hockey at the youth and amateur level. For support, call RAINN.17
Free, confidential support for men who have had unwanted or abusive sexual experiences. Online helpline and chat, 24/7.18
The limit: SafeSport's authority does not reach the pro leagues, so its jurisdiction stops well short of where the loudest stories happen.17
Plainly: the NFL, MLB and the NBA each have a written domestic violence policy; the NHL's collective bargaining agreement contains none. These lines exist because the institutions did not build anything better.19
In CanadaCanada has no single national sexual-assault line. Support is organized by province and territory.20 Two national places to start:
In danger now
For a gender-based violence crisis line in your province, the Government of Canada keeps a current directory under "Get help now."20
Crisis counseling, safety planning, and referrals for women experiencing abuse. 24/7, in 200+ languages.23
Groups working to change the system and stand with the people it harms. We point to them because they do the work. This list will grow.
The global movement to end domestic and sexual violence, built around one shared symbol and a network of 40+ local, state, and international chapters. Its Ontario chapter (Ontario Says NO MORE), run by SOAR Initiative Canada, has publicly urged pro hockey to adopt a formal, survivor-centered policy on sexual and domestic violence.
A national nonprofit advancing systemic change for people impacted by sexual violence, domestic violence, and child abuse, through public education and survivor-centered advocacy.
A coalition of 30+ sexual assault centres across Ontario offering counseling, crisis support, hospital and court accompaniment, and public education. It does not run one central line; its member centres do, collectively fielding tens of thousands of crisis calls a year. Use the locator to find the nearest centre.24
OCRCC publicly challenged Hockey Canada's handling of sexual violence and pushed for funding to flow to community sexual assault centres.
A long-running Vancouver organization providing crisis support, counseling, legal advocacy, and court accompaniment to women and gender-diverse survivors of intimate partner and sexual violence.25
BWSS publicly called on Hockey Canada's sponsors to redirect their funding to anti-violence and youth violence-prevention organizations.
The federal-policy engine of the US domestic violence movement. It led passage of the 1994 Violence Against Women Act and provides training and support to all 56 state and territorial DV coalitions, which in turn back nearly 2,000 local programs.26 The institution that actually moves DV policy nationally. Not a crisis line; for help it points to the National Domestic Violence Hotline.
Reference, not crisis. Where the research lives and where to look something up. This list will grow.
The US clearinghouse for sexual violence information. CDC-funded, it collects research, statistics, and prevention tools and supports the coalitions and rape crisis centres that do the frontline work, and it leads Sexual Assault Awareness Month every April. It does not take crisis calls; it maintains a database to help you find the programs that do.27
By reporters Evan F. Moore and Jashvina Shah. The book covers racism, homophobia, xenophobia, bullying, sexism, and violence on and off the ice at the junior, college, and professional levels.28
Last updated November 2, 2026.
