Last week was the end of the 2013-2014 YWCA Winter Emergency Response (WER) program. The YWCA WER program first opened in 2012, in collaboration with the Calgary Homeless Foundation, to prevent freezing deaths when shelters are at capacity in the cold winter months. Over the past six months, we have supported more than 640 women [...]
On May 1, 2014, the YWCA kept our temporary winter shelter open for one more night to host our fundraising event YWCA KEEP A ROOF OVER THEIR HEADS®. The event took participants through the experience of spending the night at our YWCA Winter Emergency Response (WER) program, offered during the coldest months of the year [...]
You have seen her on the train, taking her children to a doctor’s appointment. She struggled to find enough money to pay the $3 fare. It came out of her budget for groceries. You have seen her at work. She hid her bruises from you with a long sweater in the middle of a hot [...]
The YWCA of Calgary offers counselling services for parents and children to help deal with family violence and set a path to healing, learning and thriving in a safe community. Read a success story from a client who accessed our counselling services in 2013: After leaving my abusive husband, it became clear over the weeks [...]
On May 1st, YWCA KEEP A ROOF OVER THEIR HEADS® participant Pat Walsh will line up outside the YWCA to guarantee a place to sleep in our former gymnasium, which has been converted to an emergency shelter. For many women in Calgary, this process is a familiar one as the YWCA Winter Emergency Response program [...]
This morning the YWCA of Calgary issued a request for an Expression of Interest (EOI), seeking submissions from property developers to partner in the planning and development of a new YWCA facility in Calgary’s city centre. The YWCA is seeking potential land development partners to bring forward creative ideas to best leverage the YWCA’s property, [...]
Imagine trying to find a safe place to sleep during the cold nights in Calgary when the temperature dips down so low you feel the chill spreading through your bones. Your gloves are full of holes. The people who pass by ignore you. All you want is a warm place to sleep so you do [...]
Last week a radio station in Calgary burned $5,000 in a publicity stunt. The radio station asked Calgarians in a poll if they should incinerate $5,000 or give it away to the winner of a draw. According to the station, 54 per cent of tens of thousands of listeners voted to burn the cash. Last [...]
In December 2013, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down three key prostitution laws under the Criminal Code and gave Parliament one year to come up with new legislation, if it chooses to do so. The Government of Canada is currently engaging Canadians in a consultation related to rewriting the laws. The following is a [...]
On November 6, 2013, Alberta’s women’s shelters recorded the number of women and children supported for the annual ‘day in the life’ count. Full provincial shelter results can be found online. […]
