Annual Report 2012 - Women's Centre of Calgary

April 2013 2012 Annual Report 3
15 Years of Support, Connections and Community
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 addressing underlying
causes of poverty and
supporting women to Work
For Change.
We offer trust-based
services and look for ways
to facilitate reciprocity so
that all women may access
assistance when they need
it and offer assistance
as they are able to. We
provide a safe, accessible
space in which we work to
build equity and celebrate
diversity.
Get Assistance
In order to meet
overwhelming demands,
we were forced in 2012 to
streamline. We cut some of
the places we made Basic
Needs referrals. As a result,
our contacts in this area
were down slightly. At the
same time, our time per
contact increased by 18%,
enabling us to spend more
time with women.
We continued to offer an
array of referrals to other
community agencies and
to offer direct assistance
with food, personal care
supplies, Christmas and
birthday gifts, bus tickets
and grocery gift certificates.
We provided Legal Advice
Clinics, Commissioner of
Oaths and tax services. We
took messages, collected
mail and provided access to
phones, computers, printer,
fax and photocopier.
2012-2013 Board of Directors (Standing left to right: Eileen Booth, Florence Omara, Janet
Maaten, Carolyn Simpson, Roseline Carter, Rosemary Moore, Henri Giroux, Diane Altwasser,
Beverly Frizzell, Denise Young. Seated left to right: Yvonne Schmitz, Nora Habafy, Cari Gulbrandsen)
Connect with
Others
We worked to provide
a safe and welcoming
space for women from all
walks of life to meet new
people, learn new things
and build community. We
offered workshops and
groups and had record
attendance at events such
as our Stampede Lunch
and Feminist Walking Tour.
We worked with more than
a dozen other community
organizations and unions
to host a variety of
International Women’s Day
events.
Work for Change
We continued our
work on women and
poverty, participating
in the Calgary Poverty
Reduction Initiative and
the provincial Social Policy
Framework consultations.
We researched and wrote a
position paper on provincial
poverty reduction and
met with Calgary MLAs,
Associate Ministers and
Ministers.
We also began the
community development
work leading up to a
women’s gathering, Make
One Change, which we will
host Saturday, June 15,
2013. Twenty grassroots
women’s groups will tell us
about an issue impacting
their lives and recommend
a change which could
improve their situations.
Information about the
gathering is available at
www.womenscentrecalgary.
org.
Finally, after a long search
we found a new home in
Our vision: Women supporting communities, communities supporting women.
Bridgeland. Overcrowding
has been a serious issue at
the Women’s Centre for a
number of years. Our new
location, which we will
open in summer 2013, will
almost double our space
and allow us to focus on the
future with the confidence
that we can house our
dreams. And we’re thrilled
to be staying in the same
neighbourhood!
In 2012, our work was done
by more than 580 active
volunteers supported by
12 full-time and five 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.