Please check out their website for further details on the organization at:

www.ywcalgary.ca

YW Calgary has been an advocate for women in our community for more than 100 years. We have touched tens of thousands of lives and continue to evolve our programming to meet the changing needs of women and their families. Through the provision of a continuum of service, we support those who are experiencing abuse, homelessness, poverty and isolation. Our services and programs include shelter, housing, counselling, language and skills development, childcare and parenting supports.

In 2018, we provided support to more than 5,800 individuals, including 639 women and children who spent at least one night in YW’s Sheriff King Home emergency shelter.

Our vision: Women thriving in a safe and equitable community.

Our mission: To intervene, empower and lead when and where women need us most.

YW Calgary and Family Violence

YW Calgary has provided family violence prevention services for more than 30 years, and therefore understands the intricacy and range of issues affecting so many women and their families.

Calgary Police Service domestic conflict statistics are staggering. In 2017, Calgary saw a 34% increase over the five-year average in domestic violence calls, for a total of 18,500. That’s more than 50 calls a day! Recent studies also show that Alberta has the third highest number of reports of intimate partner violence against women in Canada. According to the Alberta Council of Women’s Shelters, two-thirds of women who access women’s shelters in Alberta are accompanied by children and over a third of the women arrive with two children or more. Research and practice experience demonstrates that women, children and men exposed to family violence tend to experience: unhealthy relationships, mental and physical problems, lack of education, decreased financial stability or employment, substance abuse, involvement with Child and Family Services and the law.

Women and their children have the right to live free of violence and abuse, and the threat of violence and abuse, and they also have the right to safe, appropriate and affordable housing, education, childcare, and economic security. As leaders in the field, we are committed to developing, coordinating and delivering our programs to provide women, children and men – regardless of their role in family violence – with access to comprehensive services at every stage including prevention, intervention and follow up. Through our integrated family violence prevention services, YW empowers women, children and men to make healthy, informed decisions in order to begin healing and to break the cycle of violence in their family and our community.

In 2018, the YW supported more than 3,400 people through our emergency shelter and housing programs and counselling and personal development services which include:

• YW Sheriff King Home emergency shelter

• YW Transitional Housing

• YW Domestic Violence Outreach Counselling

• YW Domestic Crisis Response Team

• YW Family Access services