Start Point is a registered charity with a growing international presence. We operate from two main locations:

Toronto, Canada: Our headquarters for program coordination, partnerships, and advocacy.
Malmö, Sweden: Our European base for outreach, research, and collaboration.

Our team also works remotely and alongside grassroots partners across the MENA region and diaspora. Wherever we are based, our work is shaped by proximity to the communities we serve.

Start Point emerged from the urgent need to support survivors of human rights violations in the early years of the Syrian conflict. Before our formal registration, we began as a grassroots initiative led by a small team of practitioners and advocates working closely with affected communities.

In 2015, Start Point was officially registered as a nonprofit organization. That same year, we launched our first structured program: an 18-month, trauma-informed initiative supporting 60 women and girls who had experienced gender-based violence and detention. The program offered psychosocial support, peer care, and pathways to reintegration, often in contexts where no other services were available.

These early experiences shaped our values and approach. What began as a local response to a crisis has grown into a transnational organization supporting survivors, displaced communities, and human rights defenders across borders, rooted in care, justice, solidarity, and the leadership of those most affected.

We envision a world where survivors of violence and repression not only heal but lead, shaping societies rooted in dignity, justice, equality, and collective care.

Our Core Values
At Start Point, our work is guided by a deep commitment to:

• Justice and accountability: We stand with survivors of state and structural violence in their pursuit of truth, redress, and systemic change.
• Gender equality and intersectionality: We center women, youth, and marginalized voices, recognizing how multiple forms of oppression shape lived experience.
• Community-led care and resilience: Healing is not just personal but collective. We believe in the power of grassroots care, cultural responsiveness, and shared resilience to help communities recover, resist, and thrive.
• Digital and civic rights: Rights and dignity must be protected both online and offline. We defend the freedom to speak, connect, organize, and exist safely in all spaces.
• Participation, proximity, and agency: Those most affected by violence and repression should lead the response. We prioritize survivor and community leadership, honoring their expertise, autonomy, and lived experience.
• Solidarity across borders: Our work transcends geography. From Canada and Sweden to the MENA region and beyond, we act in solidarity with all those resisting oppression and building inclusive futures.

We believe that truth-telling is an essential part of justice. Start Point is committed to documenting and raising awareness about human rights violations affecting communities impacted by conflict, repression, and displacement. Our work contributes to a deeper understanding of these realities—not only to inform international actors, but to amplify the voices of survivors and frontline defenders seeking recognition and accountability.

Start Point works across multiple areas to support survivors, challenge systems of oppression, and build pathways toward healing, justice, and collective liberation. Our programs are grounded in trauma-informed, community-centered practices and shaped by the lived experiences of the people we serve.

We focus our efforts across four core areas:

1. Psychosocial Support & Collective Healing: We provide trauma-informed care and psychosocial support for individuals and communities affected by violence, repression, and displacement. Through group sessions, art therapy, peer networks, and community-led care models, we create spaces for healing rooted in dignity, trust, and cultural responsiveness.
2. Community Empowerment & Education: We foster civic engagement, leadership, and rights-based education—especially for women, youth, and displaced communities. From workshops to community dialogues, we help participants build confidence, knowledge, and agency to shape their own futures and advocate for justice.
3. Advocacy, Justice & Accountability: Survivor-centered advocacy for human rights, legal accountability, and democratic values at local and international levels.
4. Digital Rights & Protection: We defend the digital rights and safety of communities at risk of surveillance, censorship, and exclusion. Through digital literacy, security training, and policy engagement, we help marginalized communities protect themselves online and reclaim space in the digital public sphere.
5. Memory, Truth & Cultural Resistance: Supporting collective memory through documentation, storytelling, and cultural resistance, to preserve truth and honor lived experience.

Our research staff works tirelessly to identify integration issues and to analyze data collected internally and by other international organizations. Read more.

Broad societal awareness about human rights violations in Syria is crucial to meeting the goals of our organization. Read more.

Our females’ projects are housed in this division. Start Point is extremely proud of the work we do to support females who have suffered from GBV. Read more.

Our youth projects aim to support and empower children, teens and young adults in Syria. We recognize the unique impact that strife, violence and violations have had on these youth. Read more.

We are a group of several teams that take a very cohesive approach in working with each other.
We aim to achieve a solution that is sustainable in our pursuit of awareness and justice.