BY TAMARA BELKOV
for northern life
The annual membership meeting for the YWCA-A Turning Point for Women, Canada’s largest women’s service organization, was held in Sudbury on the weekend.
Delegates from 150 communities across the country gathered to share expertise and discuss how to continue to help improve the lives of girls and women in Canada.
Nationally, the YWCA offers emergency shelter and permanent housing to over 30,000 women and children. It’s the largest provider of programs geared for women in literacy, life skills, counselling and employment and is the second largest provider of childcare services in the country.
The YWCA has been serving Greater Sudbury for more than 50 years by offering a service hub for people with developmental disabilities and providing shelter for victims of spousal abuse in the city at Genevra House and Brookwood apartments.
Executive Director for the YWCA in Sudbury, Colette Prevost, told delegates the local homeless shelter run by the Elizabeth Fry Society will be closing at the end of the month.
"We continue to advance the rights of women to safe shelter and address the homeless crisis. With respect to the closing of the Elizabeth Fry Transition House, we don't know what will happen to the women currenlty using the 10-bed shelter," Prevost said.
Earlier in the month, the YWCA released the findings of its research project titled Practices in Sheltering Women Leaving Violent Intimate Relationships. The study examined the emergency and permanent needs, on intake and exit, of 368 women at 10 shelter sites across Canada.
