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 through the YWCA WER program. In addition, 10 women accessing the WER program have been able to find more consistent housing and counselling support at the YWCA Mary Dover House transitional housing program.

The YWCA WER program utilizes a harm reduction approach to address homelessness. Watch our video to learn more about how a harm reduction approach helps our clients: