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 & [...]
Tuesday, November 20th, was YW’s 8th annual YWHISPER Fundraising Gala, which brought together supporters, donors and advocates to raise funds in support of women and their families who are struggling with poverty, domestic abuse and social isolation. YW was joined by former NFL player and one of TIME Magazine’s 2017 “Persons of the Year”, [...]
Today representatives from YW Calgary joined the Government of Alberta, our community partners and those with lived experience as we celebrated the important changes made to index social benefits like Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH) and Income Support with inflation. These long-overdue increases to benefits will have a direct impact on women’s lives and [...]
Can you live on $627 a month? Think about how much you spend on your most basic needs like shelter, food and transportation? Could you find housing for under $627? Could you then afford to feed yourself? These are the types of questions that some of the most vulnerable Albertans have to ask themselves [...]
So far this year Calgary Police Service (CPS) has responded to nearly 3,400 domestic violence incidents. This figure represents a 46 per cent increase compared to the five-year average. In Alberta, we, unfortunately, have one of the highest rates of domestic violence in Canada. We know that women represent 80 per cent of domestic [...]
October is End Poverty Month here in Calgary we know that creating communities where women thrive is dependent on ensuring they have access to a fair, living wage. When the minimum wage went up to $15 per hour this week, we celebrated because it meant that vulnerable individuals in our community employed at minimum wage [...]
It’s the first ever Gender Equality Week in Calgary and boy has it been a wild ride. The week started off promising as we got ready to talk about the important work we’re doing to advance gender equality at a resource fair hosted by the City of Calgary. We spent much of the early part [...]
