Frequently Asked Questions
Immediate help: domestic and sexual violence support services
You are not alone, and help is available. If you are in immediate danger, please contact your local emergency services. If you need advice, support, or simply someone to talk safely with, AXA strongly encourages you to find local support in your country by using the NO MORE Global Directory. If you feel safe doing so, you can also check if your employer has an internal domestic and sexual violence policy for employees, or an Employee Assistance Program that can offer confidential workplace help from a trusted and empathetic point of contact.
Implementing workplace domestic and sexual violence policies & training
You can use the Safe Spaces training as a foundational guide to build understanding across your organization. For the policy itself, there are excellent free, globally recognized resources available to help you start from scratch. For example, UN Women offers a comprehensive Domestic Violence Policy Template that can be customized to fit your business requirements.
While AXA recognizes that definitions of domestic and sexual abuse - as well as the legislative contexts surrounding them - vary significantly around the world, the core behaviors and the impact on victim-survivors are universally understood. The Safe Spaces training focuses on recognizing universal patterns of behavior, such as coercive control or economic abuse, rather than navigating specific regional laws. This ensures the practical 3R approach (Recognize, Respond, Refer, promoted by the World Health Organisation and UN Women) can be safely and effectively applied across all cultural and legislative environments.
While initially created to help employers and employees, the training is completely free and accessible to members of the general public. Through real-life stories, expert insights, and practical guidance, it helps all of us understand the dynamics of domestic and sexual violence and abuse. Whether you are a manager, a colleague, a friend, or a family member, it will help you recognize the signs of abuse, respond with support and empathy, and refer anyone who may be experiencing abuse to appropriate professional organisations.
The core 3R approach - Recognize, Respond, and Refer - is applicable to everyone. However, managers may benefit from supplemental internal guidance on how to navigate specific HR protocols. As an example, alongside AXA’s own internal policy they have guidance for line managers, HR departments and for people in trusted point of contact roles.
Yes. The training offers a practical and structured approach that can be adapted to different workplace environments. While the core training remains on the Safe Spaces platform, AXA recommends pairing it with internal guidance, protocols, and resources that outlines your specific HR contacts, Employee Assistance Programs, and tailored support pathways.
Yes. Safe Spaces is currently available in 12 languages and uses drama, and expert supporting interviews to convey complex subjects in a simple and meaningful way that helps viewers understand the themes of domestic and sexual violence and abuse. All of the website content includes subtitles and is accessible and available in each language.
The support pathway throughout the site is the NO MORE Global Directory which signposts individuals to support local to them.
Accessing Safe Spaces training platform
Yes. Safe Spaces is free domestic and sexual violence training, available to any organisation. While the training was primarily created as part of AXA’s We Care programme, AXA recognised the importance of making it widely available to all businesses and organisations to better support their people.
It is now freely available to all employers and individuals around the world.
There are no licences, paywalls and there is no need to enter any data to access the content.
AXA encourages people to think about the environment where they undertake the training, ensuring that the location is quiet, private, and safe. Also, due to the intensity of the material, you may want to undertake the training in several parts.
Although Safe Spaces includes a quick exit button, visiting the site may still appear in your browser history. AXA recognizes that when home is no longer a safe space, the workplace can be one of the few places where people experiencing abuse can find support and access help. If you are concerned about your digital privacy at home, AXA encourages you to view this training on a work device or in a secure, private environment at your workplace, or if possible reach out to a trusted contact at work for support.
You can access the training as many times as you like, and you do not have to carry out this training sequentially. AXA recommends at the very least you watch the ‘Why Safe Spaces’ film on the home page, followed by ‘Maria’s Story’ and the supporting expert testimonial film, to get a comprehensive overview of the subject and how to recognise, respond and refer. There are additional films that tackle various other forms of domestic and sexual abuse available on ‘More Stories’.
Businesses are encouraged to utilize the resources for free by directing their employees to the central Safe Spaces website.
To maintain the integrity, consistency, and ongoing updates of the sensitive content, AXA do not provide downloadable video files or bespoke LMS packages to external organizations. At this point, the training modules cannot currently be downloaded, hosted on, or integrated into internal Learning Management Systems (LMS).
The Safe Spaces website uses standard Google Analytics cookies for audience measurement to compile statistics based on website use. Users are free to accept, refuse, or personalize these cookies upon entering the site. The platform does not capture personal data regarding an individual's specific interactions with the sensitive scenarios or track disclosures.
Handling disclosures: supporting employees experiencing abuse
Coercive control is a pattern of behaviour used by one partner to dominate, isolate, or intimidate the other - through surveillance, financial control, threats, or restricting their freedom. See Maria's Story for a real-life example.
Economic abuse is when one partner uses money to control or harm the other - restricting access to bank accounts, sabotaging employment, withholding wages, or running up debts in their name. See Anna's Story to learn more.
A domestic and sexual violence awareness campaign should be communicated with sensitivity, choice, and clear signposting. When rolling an awareness campaign out, it is crucial to communicate that domestic and sexual abuse is a major societal challenge and that anyone can be affected. Do provide people with a content warning; be transparent that the training features real-life stories covering themes like coercive control, economic abuse, and physical and sexual violence, which may be distressing. Always pair the introduction of the training with immediate signposting to your internal support systems and external resources.
The Safe Spaces content provides you with guidance on following the 3R approach:
1. Recognize the signs of domestic and sexual violence (and validate their experience).
2. Respond with support and empathy, offering practical support where possible.
3. Refer victim-survivors to appropriate support within your organisation or to external professional support services via the NO MORE Global Directory.
Corporate partnerships
Safe Spaces is part of a broader collective effort to better support victim-survivors, and it has already been endorsed by multinational companies like Accor, L'Oréal, Engie, Orange, Publicis, and LVMH. If a local company/association wants to become an official Safe Spaces supporter, i.e., publicly committing to promoting the content of the Safe Spaces Website and having their logo visible on the Safe Spaces website. Becoming a supporter is a simple and quick process. To learn more, please get in touch with AXA Group Head of Inclusion and Diversity.
Workplace safeguarding: the role of trusted contacts
A "Trusted Primary Contact" (or, an equivalent title suited to your organization) is a named individual that employees know they can safely go to make a disclosure. As Dr. Alison Gregory explains within the Why Safe Spaces home page video, AXA do not expect these individuals to be specialists, and they do not replace specialist services. Rather, they are colleagues who are equipped with a bit more information, who can respond with empathy, and who can signpost people to outside support or internal resources like an Employee Assistance Program (EAP). For example, AXA has created a network of Trusted Primary Contacts across its entities to support employees experiencing abuse.
These trusted individuals play a key role in supporting and referring victim-survivors towards support within AXA and to external specialist support.
Receiving a disclosure of domestic or sexual abuse can be emotionally demanding. It is vital that the "first responders" (whether they are managers, HR, or trusted colleagues) have their own support pathways. AXA highly recommends establishing a clear protocol so that anyone receiving a disclosure has access to internal psychological support, such as an Employee Assistance Program (EAP), or dedicated debriefing services. This ensures they can process the emotional toll safely while maintaining the victim-survivor's confidentiality.
It’s always good to have a safeguarding expert available to support employees undertaking the training, but Safe Spaces is purposefully designed to be a self-contained, self-led digital experience. The platform pairs the scenario-based films with expert testimonial content that clearly explains the scenes, highlights what to look out for, and guides the user safely through the learning journey. The learning pathway is then supported further with relevant questions around the 3Rs. Because this expert context is built directly into the platform, your internal rollout coordinators do not need to be subject matter or safeguarding experts themselves.