National Volunteer Week – Thank you!
National Volunteer Week is a time to recognize and celebrate the incredible efforts of volunteers, it takes place April 21 to 27, 2013.
Our Community Engagement Coordinator, Shelley Chidlow, shares this message on behalf of all of us at the Women’s Centre of York Region.
I would like to take a moment to thank all of our volunteers for their support of our programs and events. Your generous donation of time, energy and talent are the foundation of what makes us successful. There are no words strong enough to express how much we appreciate what you do, but I offer you this poem as our way of saying thank you.
It Only Takes a Moment
It only takes a moment
to reach out to be a friend,
but to the one who needs you
the memory never ends.
A simple act of kindness
to a person you don’t know
may plant a seed of friendship
that for them will always grow.
We sometimes lose perspective
of the difference we can make,
when we care more of our giving
and care less of what we take.
So remember that your actions
may help change a life someday.
Always think about the person
that you meet along the way.
For it only takes a moment
to reach out to be a friend,
but to the one who needs you
the memory never ends.
“Some people want it to happen, some wish it to happen, others make it happen” – Thank you to all of our volunteers at WCYR.
Together We Can!
Girls Night Out Supports Women’s Centre of York Region
On March 7th the doors opened at NewRoads to invite the women of York Region to a fun, social and inspiring evening. It was the 3rd annual Girls Night Out and women were talking about it for weeks ahead of time. Businesses in the community came together to spotlight their services and products, there was a silent auction, and of course the very popular “hugs for hope” with the Fire Fighters of York Region. There was an air of excitement and a feeling of collective support from our community.
Women’s Centre of York Region was honoured to be chosen as the sole beneficiary this year.
Girls Night Out did not charge an entrance fee, but asked for a donation of personal care items instead. Our community, as always, showed their generosity with over 2,000 items donated! The next day, Kelly Broome-Plumley and Rino Rizzuto drove a packed van to our Centre, it took five of us and several trips back and forth to the vehicle to unload the many colourful bags of donations.
Kelly Broome-Plumley and Rino Rizzuto of NewRoads deliver the donations to WCYR
For clients of our Bridging the Gap Program, these personal care items mean more than a bottle of shampoo or conditioner. It is the ability to stretch their budget so they can feed their family; it is having that money for school lunches or to spend on other basics needs. The personal care items will be distributed to our financially vulnerable clients in an effort to ease the burden of a stretched budget and to assist them to make ends meet. We service over 250 clients a month and thanks to Girls Night Out, we can reach more clients and help financially vulnerable women in York Region support their families.
Not only did we receive 2,000 personal care items, the event also raised over $2,500. This donation will be allocated towards our Financial Literacy Program, which runs over a five week period and covers topics such as debt management, budgeting, credit and income and taxes. We have plans to expand this program and this donation will allow us to do just that, reaching more women than ever before.
In addition to the financial donation and the donated items, Girls Night Out showcased nine of our Business Incubator clients who were able to participate and have a positive experience exhibiting their products and services. The feedback was very positive and a good night was had by all!
We would like to thank NewRoads Chevrolet Cadillac Buick GMC for hosting this event and for all those who participated. With your donations and the generosity of our community the Women’s Centre of York Region can continue to support women in York Region on the path to better lives.
Together We Can!
Thank you NewRoads Chevrolet Cadillac Buick GMC for your incredible support!
From our Executive Director – Kirsten Eastwood
On March 11th the United Way published an article from our Executive Director, Kirsten Eastwood on the collaborative community project called ”Innoweave”. If you would like further information on Innoweave please click here
Offering our agencies the tools they need to make a difference
As part of our vision of “Uniting People and Resources to Improve Our Communities,”United Way York Region is continually looking for ways to help our agencies effectively execute their programming and potentially fill in any gaps where resources may be needed. A perfect example of our commitment to this is our recent involvement with a project called Innoweave.
Innoweave helps community organizations learn about, assess and implement new approaches to social service, essentially helping them generate a greater impact more quickly and at less cost. Organized into four modules, this initiative focuses on different social innovation tools and offers three levels of support to non-profits, including information on their website, various workshops and peer mentoring/coaching.
Facilitating the Impact & Strategic Clarity module with a couple of our member agencies, including Women’s Centre of York Region (WCYR), United Way has been happy to hear about the valued input and assessment that Innoweave has provided.
“Each woman that walks through our doors is different, with a unique story of why she needs support,” Kirsten Eastwood, Executive Director begins. “This can be a challenge when it comes to our client’s needs and the programs we offer. We want to ensure that we deliver the strongest programs available in order to create the largest social impact for the clients that come to us looking for assistance. Innoweave has started to help provide us with clarity around programming and how we can fully engage our staff, board of directors, donors and funders in this process.”
WCYR began working with Innoweave in November and the project wraps up in March 2013. They have helped WCYR identify what the organization wants to achieve, how it can achieve it and how to measure success. The WCYR has also conducted an in-depth analysis of their own programming data and examined external evidence to clarify where to focus their efforts.
“The Innoweave evaluation process has been a lot of work, but the information we are collecting will undoubtedly help us look at all our programs with greater clarity. Working with Innoweave has provided a tremendous amount of insight regarding strategy and programs we want to implement in the future, so that we can effectively create positive social change for the women of York Region,” continues Ms. Eastwood.
Innoweave is an initiative of The J.W. McConnell Family Foundation, in association with the Social Innovation Generation (SiG) as well as thought leaders, academics and partners from the private, public and not-for-profit sectors. The Impact and Strategic Clarity Module is supported by United Way Centraide Canada, PricewaterhouseCoopers Canada Foundation, United Way York Region, The J.W. McConnell Family Foundation, and CISCO Canada.
For more information, please visit www.innoweave.ca.
Exploring Self Employment and Enterprising Business Incubator
Exploring Self Employment and Enterprising Business Incubator are programs to assist and support entrepreneurs in developing new business ventures. These programs help nurture young businesses, helping them to survive and grow during the start-up period when they are most vulnerable. The programs provide hands-on training, networking, peer support and coaching.
Through participation in the programs women will:
- Fully explore the potential of their business idea.
- Develop a full range of business skills.
- Collaborate with other women in business.
- Access resources and a network of supporters.
- Develop business tools and skills
- Receive hands-on-training, networking, peer support and business coaching.
In order to be considered for acceptance into “Exploring Self Employment” we are looking for women who:
- Are thinking of starting up a new business, but have either not yet decided to take the plunge, or don’t know how to take the idea further
- Wish to identify the skills and knowledge you need to operate a business
- Need to explore the viability of their business idea
- Want to assess their current entrepreneurship strengths and challenges
- Are exploring self-employment as a way to move off social assistance and low paying employment?
- Ensure the business you are considering is the right business for you
- Are willing to commit to attending in-class sessions one morning a week for 10 weeks
In order to be considered for acceptance into the “Business Incubator”, we are looking for women who;
- Have already started their business in some way. This could mean having a registered business name, having some business tools in place (business card and plan), and have considered personal readiness for self-employment.
- Are willing to push personal boundaries in order to move ahead
- Have chosen self-employment as a way to move off social assistance and low paying employment.
- Are willing to commit to attending in-class sessions one morning a week for ten weeks.
- Willing to work collaboratively with other like-minded women
Spring 2013 Registration is now open!
Registrations for the spring 2013 Exploring Self Employment and Enterprising Business Incubator programs are now open. It is mandatory that all interested candidates for the programs attend the March 7th, starting a Business seminar.
Please contact Geraldine Pitschke gpitschke@wcyr.ca to register.
Welcome To 2013!
We would like to start the New Year with a sincere thank you to all those who provided us with support in 2012. Without the support from our partners and the ongoing collaboration with our fabulous community we would not be able to reach as many women as we do and help change lives.
2012 was an exciting year for WCYR:-
- We kicked off our W Project Campaign with an exciting event in October emcee’d by Jennifer Ettinger showcasing three dynamic speakers: social entrepreneur Barb Stegemann, photojournalist Paola Gianturco and Olympic gold medalist Sami-Jo Small. It was a great way to start the ball rolling on our campaign to change the path of women in York Region. The campaign will continue in 2013 – more details to come.
W Project Event with Sami-Jo Small, Jennifer Ettinger, Barb Stegmann and Paola Gianturco.
- We recently expanded our space to include a fabulous new training room and new office space for staff and our new Virtual Assistance social enterprise. We were honoured to have the Mayor of Newmarket, Tony Van Bynen and the Mayor of Aurora, Geoffrey Dawe cut the ribbon with their own brand of humour at our Open House.
Mayor of Newmarket, Tony Van Bynen and Mayor of Aurora Geoffrey Dawe cut the ribbon to officially open our new conference room. November 29th 2012
- Thank you to all those who contributed to the professional furnishings for our new space; donations are still accepted with gratitude, our wish list is available here.
- We celebrated our 35th anniversary at our AGM.
Our programs continue to develop and grow so we have increased our staff complement to 14 great team members who bring a range of dynamic skill sets to WCYR. Our board also saw many changes and we now have ten professional women with a wealth of experience and knowledge to help us meet our goals.
So what about our goals for 2013?
- We believe that living sustainably is the foundation of a healthy community. WCYR provides programs that help women in our community create and maintain sustainable lives. Programs such as life skills, financial literacy and tangible supports, job readiness, counselling, and self-employment.
- In 2013, we will launch a pilot of our Social Enterprise where our clients will provide outsourced business services to local businesses, providing them with income and key work experience.
- We will continue to raise awareness about how Together We Can create safe and healthy communities for all women through our W Project Campaign.
- We will be increasing our financial literacy programs to meet the diverse needs of our clients.
- We will expand our economic development programs (job readiness and self-employment) in Markham this spring.
- Our fundraising efforts will continue to expand providing fun and exciting events that we run in collaboration with a number of community partners. Our first event of the year is our Women Wine and Chocolate Event on February 7th . Please register soon as pace is limited, it is presented by our partner Jennifer Ettinger of “Fit Your Style” thank you Jennifer.
The staff and board invite you join us for what promises to be an exciting year at WCYR. Please feel free to visit our website, Facebook page, or follow us on twitter to stay in touch with our events and our program updates. 2013 promises to be a busy and successful year helping to change lives for women in York Region.
Together We Can!
Thank you Help Portrait Day Newmarket
Last Saturday December 8th was Help-Portrait Day, an international event where photographers donate their time and talents to produce amazing portraits for people who would not have the opportunity to do so otherwise. In Newmarket, 50 volunteers, including professional photographers, makeup artists, hair stylists, as well as general volunteers came to the Newmarket Community Centre & Lions Hall to create rock star-worthy portraits for Newmarket residents. Together they provided 245 individuals, including WCYR clients, with a portrait that touched lives.
We would like to recognize the support from caring members of our community. Over 400 portraits were printed between 10am and 5pm with a grant from The Awesome Foundation, and food and refreshments were donated by Cardinal Golf Club, O’Malley’s Catering and Tim Hortons were a special treat on the day.
Thank you on behalf of our clients to Help Portrait Day and the many volunteers who spent the time to create a special lasting moment for so many families that might not otherwise have had such an experience and portrait.
We agree with one of the many professional hair stylists who professed “Newmarket has an amazing community, with amazing people”
Participants were very appreciative and Portrait Day Newmarket has received lots of positive feedback and comments from some very happy families
Mark your calendars: next year, Help-Portrait Day Newmarket will be on Saturday, December 7, 2013 and WCYR will be participating once again.
Thank you Portrait Day Newmarket for providing this very special experience and helping to change lives.
Together We Can!
Help Portrait Day Newmarket
