YWCA Durham
33 McGrigor Street L1H 1X8 Oshawa, ON, Canada

Please take a moment to share. $1.00 will be donated to Y's WISH Shelter for every share today!

Text COURAGE to 41010 right now. November is Women Abuse Prevention Month and today you can help provide safety for women and children experiencing violence. Will you join award-winning songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, humanitarian and performer, Shy-Anne Hovorka and thousands of others who are saying: enough is enough? Text COURAGE to 41010 right now and a donation of your choice ($5-$25) will be automatically directed to participating women’s shelters in Ontario.... #WrappedinCourage #WomanAbusePreventionMonth Wrapped in Courage See more

You can make a difference by texting COURAGE to 41010 right now. November is Woman Abuse Prevention Month and you can help provide safety for women and children experiencing violence in #Ontario. Will you join Canadian comedian, television personality, political satirist and author Rick Mercer and thousands of others who are saying: enough is enough? Text COURAGE to 41010 right now and a donation of your choice ($5-$25) will be automatically directed to participating women’s ...shelters in Ontario. #WrappedinCourage Wrapped in Courage #WomanAbusePreventionMonth See more

Updated August 17, 2020 We continue to maintain our essential counselling, housing and shelter programs. Y's WISH Shelter is available 24-hours a day, 7-days a week. If you need our help, call (905) 576-2997 or 1-888-576-2997. Please note that we are a communal living/residential facility and as such are under strict guidelines. The following changes will be made to our programming and events until at least the end of 2020. ... Check back here for updates, or give us a call at (905) 576-6356. DONATIONS Donations of used clothing and housewares is suspended until further notice. To arrange to donate new items, please call the office directly at (905) 576-6356. ADELAIDE'S ATTIC The store is closed until further notice. ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICES - 33 MCGRIGOR ST, OSHAWA Call ahead first (905) 576-6356 Monday to Thursday 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Friday CLOSED ROOM RENTALS New room rental bookings (Drawing Room, Oak Room, Gym and Club Room) are suspended. EARLYON PROGRAMS EarlyON programs throughout the region are administered by the Region of Durham. Please check with them for updates at https://www.durham.ca//earlyon-child-and-family-centres.as. or (905) 666-6238. Thank you for your understanding.

Hopefully the sun will continue to shine this weekend! Will you walk for us? Register here: https://durhamcommunityfoundation.ca/i/walk-for-your-cause/

In #Ontario, 1 in 3 women will experience violence in their lifetime. Text COURAGE to 41010 to donate $5-$25 and give women a place to turn when they experience violence. #WrappedinCourage #WomanAbusePreventionMonth

Thank you to Durham Community Foundation for organizing the virtual Walk For Your Cause event from Sunday, October 18th to Sunday the 25th! Will you walk for us? If you’d like to support us as your cause of choice, register for the event and then send an email to [email protected] to receive a pledge sheet. You can walk anytime during the week, anywhere, and collect pledges for YWCA Durham. Donations collected can then be submitted online or you can call our office at (...905) 576-6356 to make other arrangements. Thanks to Durham Community Foundation for this opportunity, and for all they do to support our organization and many others in this community. Looking forward to seeing you all out there walking next week! P.S. don’t forget to take a picture of where you walked so we can celebrate all the beautiful spots in our community. Register here: https://durhamcommunityfoundation.ca/i/walk-for-your-cause/ Send an email to [email protected] to receive a pledge sheet, or donate here: https://bit.ly/2IrIJjh

Today is International Day of the Girl. The theme for 2020 is "My Voice, Our Equal Future." Let's all work to inspire girls with strong, confident voices! https://www.un.org/en/observances/girl-child-day

Text COURAGE to 41010 right now. November is Woman Abuse Prevention Month and today you can help provide safety for women and children experiencing violence. Will you join Canadian comedienne, actress, writer and co-creator of Baroness von Sketch ShowAurora Browne and thousands of others who are saying: enough is enough? Text COURAGE to 41010 right now and a donation of your choice ($5-$25) will be automatically directed to participating women’s shelters in Ontario.... #WrappedinCourage

Our administrative offices will be closed on Monday, October 12th. As always, our Y's WISH Shelter and Crisis Line will be available 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. Please call (905) 576-2997 or 1-888-576-2997 if you need our help. We wish you all a safe and happy Thanksgiving long weekend.

Pass it on and please share the original post to help support one of the violence against women shelters in our region.

A huge thank you to the wonderful team at RBC Durham Commercial Financial Services for their time and effort today at YWCA Durham! Not only did they weed our gardens and patios, rake up leaves and pick up garbage, they also personally donated gift cards for our annual Holiday gift collection. One of the greatest gifts you can share is your time. We cannot thank you enough. Happy Thanksgiving, indeed.

Last night we received a large donation from the Calvary Baptist Church youth group. All this food was collected during their annual Thanksgiving food drive and we are so pleased to be one of their recipients again this year. Thank you for all your hard work!!

We are currently looking for someone to fill the role of Caretaker / Maintenance Supervisor. If you are interested in learning more about this position, please visit: http://www.ywcadurham.org/employment

A BIG Thank You to Second Harvest and FoodRescue.ca for delivering great quality food to us last week. We will be able to prepare some fantastic dishes for our resident's thanks to their Surplus Food Rescue Program.

It's here! Check out our new report on second stage shelters in Canada. This study is the first of its kind in Canada to examine the spectrum of supports for su...rvivors of IPV and how second stage shelters address and close housing gaps and break the cycle of abuse. Read the full report here: http://www.endvaw.ca/secondstage

Today we stand in solidarity, remembering the individual, family and community inter-generational impacts of Indian Residential Schools. https://www.orangeshirtday.org/

We are currently looking for someone to fill the role of Casual Relief Shelter Counsellor. If you are interested in learning more about this position, please visit: http://www.ywcadurham.org/employment

We're celebrating our 75th birthday this year! According to the "History of the Oshawa YWCA 1945-1983," in 1952 "the Craft Shop was a busy place, where juniors, teenagers and adults took advantage of the opportunity to learn such crafts as weaving, metalcraft, leathercraft, felt work and rug making, amid good fellowship and pleasant surroundings." The projects may have changed over the years but one thing remains consistent: the therapeutic benefits of crafting. Gathering to...gether to make something by hand brings peace, focus and social interaction. Craft workshops remain very popular for residents in our 2nd Stage Housing Job/Life Skills Program. Many adjustments have been made to ensure the safety of all participants - physical distancing, individual supply packs, and hand sanitizing - but the benefits remain. Here are some of the projects our residents have worked on over the past few months. P.S. Thank you to Melanie from CFUW for sharing the history book with us!

We know that the pandemic impacts women greatly, whether it further isolates them, places them on the front line of public contact or forces them out of work completely. The University of Toronto and YWCA Canada explain here: https://nowtoronto.com/news/covid-economic-recovery

This year you can participate in Take Back the Night from the comfort of your home, this Thursday from 5-7 pm.