2011 At a Glance - Women's Centre of Calgary

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(FROM LEFT to RIGHT BACK ROW) JESSICA AYALA, DENISE YOUNG, LINDSAY STORM, YVONNE SCHMITZ, ROSE- MARY MOORE, FLORENCE OMARA, BEV FRIZZELL, JULIE BLACK, DIANE ALTWASSER. (FRONT ROW) SHARON GEORGE, LINH BUI, NORA HABAFY, CAROLYN SIMPSON. MISSING: EILEEN BOOTH, JANET MAATEN Women’s Centre Board of Directors: Co-Chair Report I am pleased to bring greetings from the Women’s Centre Board of Directors. The Women’s Centre of Calgary is a unique, street-front organization that provides a variety of services and opportunities to the women of Calgary. Our mission is to be every woman’s place for support, connections and community. Our vision is women supporting communities, communities supporting women. The last year, as always, was a busy one. Our annual board retreat helped us to define our priorities in the areas of People, Resources, and Community, and the committees were active over the past year working on those priorities. Some of the committee highlights have included organizing meetings with all of the City Councillors, developing new fundraising ideas, and updating Women’s Centre policies and risk management planning. “The last year, as always, was a busy one. “ We have also enjoyed participating in many of the Women’s Centre activities and celebrations, including workshops, International Women’s Day, the Stampede lunch, and the Christmas Toy Room. Reluctantly, we accepted the resignation of co-chair Lindsay Storm, but are pleased that she has been able to stay involved through the Social Issues committee. A big thank you to Lindsay for the great energy and commitment you provided on the board over the past few years. The board embraces the values of inclusion and diversity in terms of our own membership and work, and remains committed to supporting the Women’s Centre as a whole in every way we can. Congratulations to all of the women involved in the Women’s Centre on another year of great work and great community! -Bev Frizzell, Co-Chair
April 2012 2011 ANNUAL REPORT 2011 In Review: Working for Change At the Women’s Centre we work in three strategic areas- helping women to ‘Get Assistance’ with basic needs; providing a safe space and opportunities for women to ‘Connect With Others’; and supporting women to ‘Work For Change’ on social issues. Research over the last two years has helped us identify our most promising practices in those areas and reaffirmed the importance of our ways of work within our unique peer model. We know we have the greatest impact when those areas overlap-when those seeking assistance speak to the issues affecting them and we are all able to build community together. We also know that any woman may need assistance at some point in her life and at other times, or in other ways, will be able to give back. 2011 was another incredibly busy year with 80 phone calls and 160 women coming to the Women’s Centre a day. Get Assistance Thousands of women came seeking assistance with the most basic needs. In response we provided food, personal supplies, Christmas and birthday toys, and bus tickets. We referred to numerous community programs for housing, clothing, furniture, haircuts and glasses. We provided Legal Advice, Commissioner of Oaths and tax services. We took messages, collected mail, and provided access to phones, computers, printer, fax and photocopier. Connect With Others We worked to provide a safe place for women from all walks of life to meet new people, learn new things and build community. We offered workshops and groups, hosted special events such as Stampede and Solstice lunches and provided opportunities for women to volunteer and to attend events in the community. Peer support volunteers listened carefully and shared information and resources. In order to better connect with our local community we hit the streets in Bridgeland to talk to women about how they would like to get involved with the Women’s Centre. We spoke to 95 women and hosted a community meet and greet event. And in order to connect with the broader community we developed a new, more interactive website which hosts information about almost anything you would like to know about the Centre. Work For Change We strengthened our coalition work on social issues, joining the Public Interest Alberta poverty task force and supporting the Action to End Poverty in Alberta. We worked with the City of Calgary to include women’s issues in the Social Outlook report and asked women in poverty what the City could do to most impact their lives. We took that information to City Council along with the request that women’s voices continue to be heard 3 during its upcoming poverty reduction planning. We worked with more than a dozen community organizations and unions to host a variety of International Women’s Day events highlighting women’s issues and collaborated with another eight groups to plan a Women and Poverty conference in April 2012. In 2011 our work was done by 472 dedicated volunteers supported by 10 full-time and 5 part-time and relief staff. Our work is made possible by the generous support of our core funders: the City of Calgary Family and Community Support Services and the United Way of Calgary and Area, as well as hundreds of individual, company and foundation donors. OUR VISION: WOMEN SUPPORTING COMMUNITIES, COMMUNITIES SUPPORTING WOMEN
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