About us

I Believe HER Society was created from lived experience and from the belief that survivors deserve more than survival. Too many survivors are left to navigate complicated systems without guidance or support. We are here to make sure that survivors feel believed, supported, and accompanied through every step.

 

We provide emotional support and help with system navigation in civil and family legal processes, where support is often limited. We help survivors understand what to expect, stay grounded through difficult decisions, and access trusted professionals and resources.

 

Our approach is rooted in safety and choice. Survivors are the experts in their own lives. We support goals based on what survivors want for themselves, not what others expect from them. Healing is personal and there is no right or wrong way to move forward.

 

We are survivor led and guided by trauma informed principles. We believe that healing and justice look different for everyone. We are here to walk beside survivors at their pace. No one heals alone.

Advocacy

We advocate for safer systems and stronger protections for survivors. We focus on areas where harm continues because policy has not kept pace with real lived experiences of violence, coercive control, and legal harassment.

 

We work to increase understanding of how post separation abuse continues in courtrooms and bureaucracy, often without recognition. We support improvements to how first responders and professional caregivers are screened and held accountable in order to protect vulnerable people.

 

Our advocacy is grounded in the truth that survivors know what change is needed. We raise awareness, share survivor informed knowledge, and encourage communities and systems to believe survivors first.

 

Change does not happen by accident. It happens when survivors are heard, respected, and supported. Together we can build the world survivors deserve.

Meet Our Founder 

Jill Bye-Durant is a multidisciplinary creator and survivor advocate in Calgary, Alberta. She has built her career at the intersection of storytelling, community care, and trauma informed support. As a writer and musician, Jill uses narrative and creative expression to help connect survivors to a sense of voice and belonging. As a founder, she is shaping practical, accessible supports for those navigating violence and system responses in real time.

 

Jill brings lived experience to this work. She has personally faced the challenges and barriers that survivors encounter when they seek safety and justice. Her advocacy is informed by direct knowledge of how systems can overlook survivors, especially in civil and family legal processes. This insight drives her commitment to creating supports that stay with survivors through the full arc of their journey.

 

Her upcoming memoir titled I Believe HER explores survival, resilience, and what it means to rebuild life after trauma. It also serves as a creative foundation for the nonprofit, linking storytelling with community support. Jill believes that stories change culture and that culture can influence policy and public responsibility.

 

With a strong focus on collaboration, Jill is committed to growing trauma informed programs, creative healing opportunities, and survivor led leadership within I Believe HER Society. She works to build partnerships that strengthen safety and inclusion across services in Calgary and beyond.

 

Jill leads with compassion, accountability, and a belief in what survivors can achieve when they are supported and never left alone in the storm. Survivors deserve safety, dignity, and community. That is the future she is working to build.

Meet our team

 

Board of Directors

 

 

Currently information

We are assembling a passionate founding board dedicated to trauma informed, survivor led support and advocacy. This group will guide the direction, ethics, and future growth of I Believe HER Society.