YWCA Canada

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About

YWCA Canada is a leading voice for women, girls, Two-Spirit, and gender-diverse people.  For 150 years, YWCA has been at the forefront of Canada’s women’s movement, responding with community action and making lasting change through national advocacy. 

Our Impact

Through our 29 unique YWCAs across Canada, we reach more than one million women, girls, Two-Spirit and gender diverse people.

Collectively, YWCAs:

  • invest $260 million in the community through local action
  • shelter over 2000 women and families each night
  • offer over 2,500 affordable housing units
  • operate over 40 gender-based shelters
  • employ over 5000 Canadians, mostly women
  • are Canada’s largest provider of gender-based violence shelters
  • are Canada’s second- largest provider of childcare
  • are Canada’s largest provider of employment and counselling programs for women

How your gift will be used

Your support will help us deliver on both immediate and long-term needs for women, girls, and gender-diverse people.

While there is much to do to advance gender equity, philanthropic funders can accelerate the feminist movement by providing core, flexible and multi-year support directly to feminist institutions, like YWCA Canada.

Currently, rhetoric for supporting women, girls and gender diverse people is not matched by actual funding to feminist institutions and this needs to change.

Research shows that when women-led groups are directly resourced, they are more equipped to challenge and change the laws and practices that perpetuate their oppression and marginalization.

YWCA and Will Power partnership

Legal Name

YWCA Canada

Charity Number

88878 9393 RR0001

Website

“I would like to say how grateful I am for this help at such a difficult time in my life. I was able to find a safe house and now l find a storage unit with the money and afford gas to get there and back. I have been through so much and this help is truly helping me gain my life back slowly and with dignity. I am beyond grateful for this opportunity. Please know it is going to be good, good help to rebuild after many years of abuse.”

- – Recipient of National Emergency Survivor Support Funds, YWCA Toronto

YWCA Canada is a central source collective impact and leadership for 29 local YWCAs. 

The gendered housing crisis has become so severe across Canada that the Federal Housing Advocate deemed it one of the top human rights issues in 2023. This crisis disproportionately affects women, particularly Indigenous women and gender-diverse individuals, who face greater challenges in accessing safe, affordable, and secure housing.

- Canada's Federal Housing Advocate

"Through our national Truth and Reconciliation Action Committee, YWCA will continue to implement practical ways to support the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Calls for Justice, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action and supporting and implementing the resolution United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.  As a legacy institution that benefited from and contributed to colonial policy, YWCA Canada is committed to centering decolonial efforts and supporting the work of Indigenous communities, Elders, and knowledge keepers."

- YWCA Canada's National CEO

"The program equipped me with skills and confidence when I doubted my reach in the tech industry and has been instrumental in enabling me to demand a fair wage and equal opportunities and thrive in a challenging industry. Today, I’m working alongside ambitious, accomplished women and together we’re paving a path for those who didn’t have the same opportunities as us.”

- YWCA Reskilling Program Participant

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