YW programs provide a positive avenue for women, gender diverse people, and youth to challenge themselves and develop skills that will help them become self-reliant. Our programs nurture the growth of women, gender diverse individuals, and young people in the community, helping them build the confidence and self-esteem needed to be a changemaker.
With over a century of dedication to women and their families, the YWCA serves the community as one of our region’s largest non-profit organizations. Over the years we’ve developed our programming to meet the changing needs of local women and gender diverse individuals and remain committed to gender equality.
Learn more about how we empower local women, gender diverse individuals, and youth, and how you can help by subscribing to our newsletter. You’ll receive our quarterly updates on our programming, how we’re working to create system level change with our advocacy work and insight on what’s to come for our organization.
This Giving Tuesday, we’re rallying our community to raise $15,000 to support women, children, and gender-diverse people who turn to YW Kitchener-Waterloo for shelter, safety, and support.
Thanks to an incredible $1,500 kick-off gift from the Lions Club of Kitchener, we’re already on our way! Every donation fills the thermometer and helps ensure no one in our community faces homelessness or hardship alone.
Provides a week of healthy snacks for children in our childcare programs.
Covers essential toiletries and supplies for a family in emergency shelter.
Funds one month of career coaching for a woman seeking employment.
Supports a month of supportive housing for a woman transitioning out of homelessness.
Provides a festive holiday meal for residents in supportive housing.
Helps furnish an affordable housing unit for a family in need.
Powers advocacy and community programs that advance equity and safety for women and gender-diverse people.
THE YW KITCHENER-WATERLOO ACKNOWLEDGES THAT THE LAND ON WHICH WE LIVE AND WORK TODAY, IS OF THE HALDIMAND TRACT WITHIN THE TERRITORY OF THE NEUTRAL, ANISHINAABE AND HAUDENOSAUNEE PEOPLE. WE ARE THANKFUL TO THE FIRST NATIONS, MÉTIS AND INUIT PEOPLE WHO CARE FOR THESE TERRITORIES AND THOSE ACROSS THE PROVINCE.
In this territory, Indigenous peoples continue to endure inequality, violence, and oppression due to colonialism. This is magnified by the historical and ongoing widespread failure by settlers and institutions to uphold their responsibilities within the Dish With One Spoon Covenant. To fulfill our vision of an inclusive and equitable world where women are empowered to choose change, we must stand in allyship with Indigenous peoples.
To us, allyship is a continuous process; it is not a designation that one can earn and hold forever, or a label one can give themselves. Allyship is earned through actions. As beneficiaries of this land, we have a responsibility to acknowledge and understand its history and the current experiences of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples, and to be accountable to the oppression they continue to face.
We commit in our work and our community to hold ourselves accountable in the continuous work of decolonizing, to ensure that we do not perpetuate the harms of colonization and to begin to repair them.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE PURPOSE OF LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS CHECK OUT HTTPS://NATIVE-LAND.CA/. CHECK OUT HTTPS://WWW.WHOSE.LAND/EN/ TO LEARN ABOUT THE TERRITORY YOUR HOME OR BUSINESS IS SITUATED ON, FIND INFORMATION FOR A LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT, AND LEARN ABOUT THE TREATIES AND AGREEMENTS SIGNED ACROSS CANADA.
Administrative Office
153 Frederick Street
Kitchener, ON N2H 2M2
Phone: (519) 576-8856
Email: general@ywkw.ca
Charitable Number: 118987643RR0001
