In recognition of Calgary Pride, our community is gathering this week to celebrate the diversity of our city and create a space where everyone feels safe and welcome to be themselves. Transgender advocate and actress, Laverne Cox said, “I’ve never been interested in being invisible and erased”. When she talks about being ‘invisible’ and ‘erased’ [...]
I attended the YWCA’s Neighbour Day festivities on June 15th to get a sneak-a-peek tour of the new ‘YW Hub’ complete in construction and scheduled to officially open its doors September 1, 2019. Community and neighbourhood collaboration were focal points around the visioning, design and construction of the YW’s new, state-of-the-art building. Members of [...]
As I, and many others shuffled into the rehearsal studio in the Arts Commons, children, families and elders sat wide-eyed waiting for the event to begin. We had all gathered at the Arts Commons to celebrate Indigenous culture and heritage for their National Indigenous People’s Day Celebrations. The room reflected the diversity of Calgary’s [...]
Volunteers are the soul of any non-profit organization and YW Calgary is no exception. Our work can only be done in concert with our committed volunteers, donors, community partners and women and their families. Each volunteer is a key component in helping YW achieve our mission to intervene, empower and lead where and when [...]
Around the world, March 8th marks International Women’s Day. A celebration of the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. A day to highlight the progress made since Caucasian women first won the right to vote in Canadian provinces just 68 years ago; it was another 9 years until Indigenous women were awarded [...]
A team member at YW took a brave and bold step recently to share her experience for Black History Month. We often speak about being advocates, allies and warriors for and with women. What we sometimes forget to say is that it’s not just women who might be experiencing domestic abuse, homelessness or poverty. [...]
At YW Calgary, we work with women on some of the hardest days of their lives. Days when they’re leaving an abusive relationship, struggling with homelessness or poverty, navigating their way forward to a new job or learning to speak English. Approximately 80 percent of the families we support are low income, many of [...]
“In 1907, a young woman arrived by train in Calgary and looked for a place to stay. She went to all of the boarding houses and hostels, and finally began knocking on doors of private residences, but she could not find a room.” You see at the time young women were not desirable boarders as [...]
On any given night, more than 170 women and children sleep in a YW Calgary shelter because there they are safe. The holidays bring a variety of emotions for the women, children and men accessing services at YW. For some, they are celebrating having a roof over their head and a door to close [...]
This week was the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women so our team sat down with Heather Morley, VP of Programs and Services, to talk about why 29 years later Canadians still remember this day and how we need to take action to address the violence and abuse women & [...]
