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North York Women's Shelter

Every year we donate a portion of sales from various events to the North York Women’s Shelter, an anti-violence shelter for women and children located in the North end of Toronto. The NYWS underwent an enormous rebuild in 2019. Here you will find updates on their progress as well as notification of any current fundraising efforts for them at Birds.

You can donate directly to NYWS at any time here.

 

NYWS update November 29, 2023

Thank you for your support of our 2023 Mushrooms In The Basement Sale! We were able to donate $1576.50 to the North York Women's Shelter today from sale proceeds! It will go towards their general operating costs as they continue to offer vital support and shelter to women in the GTA though the holiday season 💙

 

NYWS update May 9, 2023

Thank you so much for all of your 2023 Golden Ticket Sale orders! Today we were able to donate $3233 to the North York Women's Shelter from sale proceeds! 

 

NYWS update November 23, 2022

Thank you so much to everyone who ordered during our annual Mushrooms in the Basement sale last week! We're delighted to be able to donate $2066 to the North York Women's Shelter's 'Stand With a Family' program!

NYWS is an anti-violence centre and shelter in Toronto that empowers women, non-binary, and trans folks to move forward into a life free from violence, and they have 50 families who will be relying on the Stand With a Family program this year.

This annual gift-card program helps families purchase what they need for the holidays whether it be for holiday meals, gifts, or other necessities 💙

 

NYWS update May 20, 2022

Thank you so much for all of your 2022 Golden Ticket Sale orders! Today we were able to donate $3329 to the North York Women's Shelter from sale proceeds! 

The North York Women’s Shelter is a trauma-informed organization that is both an emergency shelter and an anti-violence collective. Despite the myriad challenges NYWS has faced during the pandemic - city lockdowns, closures, lack of community resources, and increases in operating costs - they have made sure that their mandate to listen to and support survivors has remained a focus, and have been able to operate safely at near-full capacity for the last 2 years. This has been due in large part to the innovative features of the building, designed based on listening to the needs of survivors and former residents, that include private bedrooms and abundant open space. The staff and residents of NYWS have also been deeply committed to protecting each other during this period through maintaining safety, distancing and cleaning protocol.

NYWS continues to support residents, even after they are discharged, with access to resources including long term affordable housing, and schooling and employment support. One of the events they hosted so far in 2022 was a tax clinic where residents were able to file their taxes with the guidance and support of experts from the WealthSimple Foundation. Taxes are integral to so many other documents, such as housing applications, and for many residents of the NYWS it was be their first time filing taxes without their former partner, so this was an invaluable experience.

NYWS said in a recent newsletter, ‘we are making it our mandate to celebrate the holidays, milestones, celebrations for all NYWS residents. Joy is resistance. Joy is nourishing. Joy gives us hope.’ This is so true, especially now. They have already hosted celebrations this year (based, always, on what and how the residents have indicated they would like to celebrate) of Black History Month, International Women’s Day, Easter, Eid for residents celebrating Ramadan, as well as Mother’s Day. Next, they are hoping to host a mini graduation ceremony for their school-age residents in June.

We’re delighted to be able to direct a portion of sales from our annual Golden Ticket Sale to help NYWS continue their vital work. Seeing an organisation that offers such informed, progressive, and thoughtful care and support to women who are experiencing violence in the Greater Toronto Area gives us great hope that we continue to learn as a society how to better support all the people in our city.

If you’d like to become a regular donor to NYWS, you can sign up at nyws.ca and keep up to date with their events on instagram and TikTok  @northyorkwomensshelter 💙

NYWS update December 1, 2021

Thank you so much for making our annual Mushrooms in the Basement sale such a great success again this year - we're delighted to be able to donate $2190 to the North York Women's Shelter's 'Stand With a Family' program! 

NYWS currently has 50 families, of women and their children, that are in need of support over the holidays. The Stand with a Family program gives people in the community an opportunity to donate gift cards to families so they can purchase gifts for the holidays, food for a celebratory meal, and basic essentials.

One of the things NYWS does so well is listening to what survivors say they need in terms of support. The list of gift cards they have come up with has been compiled after careful deliberation with residents of NYWS. Donating funds so the NYWS can provide gift cards to families is a way of showing families that they are being thought of during this season, that they matter, and that their security and sense of well being matters to the community.

NYWS has continued to provide non-judgemental safe shelter, advocacy, and services including 24-hour crisis support for survivors of gender-based violence throughout the pandemic. They've been able to increase their capacity by 33% in the past year to help more survivors than ever during this incredibly difficult time. Women, non-binary, trans individuals and their children have been receiving health care support, trauma counselling, and expressive arts therapy to help heal and empower them to move forward in lives free from violence. 

 

NYWS update June 3, 2021

Thank you so much for your orders during our annual Golden Ticket Sale - we were able to donate $3171 to the North York Women's Shelter from sale proceeds!

We’ve been very fortunate to be able to follow the recent re-build of the North Yorks Women’s Shelter from start to finish, and seeing the survivor-centred building design come to life has been an inspiration to witness.

The pandemic has acted as a stress test on all of the services in our communities, and though so many have been exposed to be woefully deficient during this time, the new design of the NYWS has proven to be exceptionally successful under these challenging conditions.

I spoke recently to Lindsay Sweeney-Hockin, the Director of Development at NYWS, about their experience at the shelter during the last year. She shared that it was almost as if the building had been designed for pandemic conditions. While most shelters have had to reduce the number of beds they offer during the past year, in order to ensure the safety of their residents, the NYWS has actually been able to increase their number of beds during the same period.

One of the main difference-makers in the design is the private rooms. Though it has been unavoidable that residents have had to be more isolated than usual during this time, the private rooms have allowed them to feel safe by having control over their environments. NYWS has been able to provide both a TV and a tablet to each resident to use in their rooms so they are able to keep in touch with their families, friends and others in their support networks. Lindsay mentioned that for many people isolation has been a part of their trauma experience, so it has been especially important to the residents of NYWS to be able to stay connected, as pandemic isolation can trigger that trauma.

Other ways the NYWS has been able to create positive change during this time is that they have hired a full time teacher for the shelter. Since children usually comprise the majority of residents at NYWS - generally about 60% - it has been very important to find a safe and effective solution to stay-at-home learning for the children who live there. Lindsay said they have been operating like an ersatz one-room-school-house, with students of all ages who live in the shelter learning from the same teacher in an organized, scheduled environment. The teacher has been focused on building trust with the students and Lindsay shared that the consistent, encouraging support has had a noticeable positive effect on the students over the past months.

Seeing the positive impact of a place like NYWS that puts the care and experience of its residents at the forefront of every decision they make gives me hope that more institutions can and will follow suit. It’s not only the shelter, but also the services NYWS offers combined with the advocacy they do on behalf of women experiencing violence that makes this organization so important. We’re delighted to be able to direct a portion of sales from our annual Golden Ticket Sale to help them continue their incredible work.

 

NYWS update November 22, 2020

Thank you for all of your orders during our Mushrooms in the Basement sale this year! We were able to donate $500 to the NYWS Sponsor a Family program from sale proceeds, and Birds was matched with 3 families (a mum and her two kids, as well as two single women) who will be supplied gift cards to help them through the holiday season. We have directed the balance of our donation, $1639, to the NYWS general fund.

 

NYWS update November 17, 2020

We're donating a portion of our 'Mushrooms in the Basement' sales to the North York Women's Shelter. We’re going to split the donation this year between their holiday Sponsor A Family program and their regular fundraising for general operating costs.

NYWS currently has 30 families, of women and their children, that are in need of support over the holidays. The Sponsor A Family program gives people in the community an opportunity to donate gift cards so families in need can purchase gifts for the holidays, food for a celebratory meal, and basic essentials.

If you are interested in directly sponsoring a NYWS family this year, you can fill out a confidential, online form before November 20th. Once NYWS receives your registration, they will match you with a family and send you information about them to help you pick out gift cards to match their wish list. In order to be matched with a specific family, they need a minimum donation of $100. If you have a smaller budget, but would still like to help, you can also make a donation directly to NYWS and they will purchase the gift cards on your behalf. Thank you for considering making a small donation if your budget allows this year!

The balance of our donation will go towards the NYWS ‘general fund’ which directs resources where they are most needed.

As you may have heard in the news, there has been a shocking and disturbing rise in domestic violence since the start of the pandemic. Calls to crisis centres have been up as much as 400% over ‘normal’ as women and their children negotiate newly unstable, often unsafe, domestic situations triggered or exacerbated by the particular stresses of this time.

Women who are experiencing violence at home, and who don’t have significant personal financial resources, simply do not have a lot of options when it comes to seeking safety for themselves and their children. I find this profoundly unsettling to think about. It feels like a deep, dark hole in the fabric of our society into which women can fall without warning. It’s not the kind of situation any woman imagines for their lives, and is therefore hard to prepare for.

As violence against women in Canada has slowly started to receive the increased study and attention that it so desperately needs, we've learned that gender-based violence has a disproportionate impact on Black, Indigenous and racialized communities, street-involved and substance-using women, women living with disabilities, and women with precarious immigration status. Our country has so few resources in place to support women when they find themselves in times of crisis, and with shelters being over-crowded at the best of times, vulnerable communities such as these are especially affected by domestic violence.

The incredible staff of the North York Women’s Shelter are on the front lines of this underreported, unseen problem every day, giving it voice and giving it light. They not only provide safe shelter for women and children who need it, but they perform the equally important function of directing women to the outside support and resources that are available to them.

Until our communities and leaders recognise how essential institutions like the North York Women’s Shelter are in literally saving women's and children's lives, and fund them appropriately, we need to do everything we can to support them.

Thank you for supporting Birds in supporting NYWS, and I wish you a safe and happy holiday 2020 season.

 

NYWS update June 13, 2020

 We're so happy to say we were able to donate $2525 to the North York Women's Shelter on June 9th! Thank you again for all of your support of us, and of NYWS during this time.

 

NYWS update June 4, 2020

We're donating a portion of proceeds from our annual Golden Ticket Sale this year to the North York Women's Shelter!

As you probably know, the NYWS is an organization very dear to the hearts of all of us at Birds. We’ve been doing our small part to advocate for them and to raise funds for several years now, but the Covid 19 crisis has brought the importance of what they do into even sharper focus. 

There has been a spike in violence directed at women in Toronto in the last few months since Covid 19 started. Calls to some crisis centres have been up as high as 300% more than usual. According to Victim Services Toronto, many women who were previously experiencing intimate partner abuse with a lower level of physical violence, such as verbal abuse and controlling behaviour, have experienced an escalation in assault, often involving a weapon.

Pre-Covid, when a woman called 911 to seek help, there was often a staff member of Victim Services Toronto who would accompany the police to any domestic disturbance calls. Due to physical distancing regulations, these workers now have to make do with speaking to victims on the phone, which is not ideal when victims are isolated at home with their abusers.

Isolation is one of the main tools used by abusive partners, and many abusers with pre-existing controlling behaviour have taken advantage of the enforced social disconnection to further isolate their partners, preventing them from seeking the help they need. Many women in abusive relationships aren’t aware of their legal rights, and when their movement is being restricted they have even fewer resources available to find out what their rights are.

One of the things that the NYWS offers in their Community Hub (now named for Anne Marie D’Amico, a victim of the 2018 misogynist van attack in Toronto, in whose memory the Anne Marie D’Amico Foundation tirelessly raises funds for the NYWS) is computers.

It sounds like such a small thing, but it can be hard to access a computer at home for many women who are in an abusive, controlling situation, which makes it even harder for them to access the services they need. A controlling partner might check their browsing history, listen in on phone calls, or deny them access to the internet entirely. As the quarantine is lifted, many women who may not be ready or able to access shelter at that precise moment, but do need some of the services the NYWS provides, such as access to legal counsel, settlement agencies, and health support, can come in and access computers without the knowledge of their partners.

Stay-at-home orders have created many new challenges for women living at home with their abusive partners, and it’s becoming clear that as the quarantine is lifted we will start to see the true magnitude of the effect that isolation has had on domestic violence. Shelters are expecting a flood of new women seeking shelter for themselves and their children in the coming months. Resources and available beds, which were already insufficient in Toronto before Covid 19 hit, will have to stretch even further as women make the move to escape unsafe living situations.

Protesters all over North America the last couple of weeks have also brought to the forefront the effect that systematically ingrained racism has on people of colour in all aspects of life. Violence against women is intensified by many systems of oppression, including racism and poverty.

Other factors that increase risk include being a newcomer or immigrant woman, trans, lesbian, non-binary, disabled, or simply being a younger or older woman. Despite violence being a problem that affects every single type of woman in the world, women of colour and indigenous women are disproportionately affected - something we need to acknowledge and to work urgently towards changing.

We must all stand together and support each other, make sure as many resources as possible are available, and that women know where they can seek this help when they need it. The North York Women’s Shelter is a vital link in this chain, and the services they offer combined with the advocacy they do on behalf of women experiencing violence, is something we need to prioritize as a society.

NYWS, like all women’s shelters in the GTA, is forced to operate at a constant deficit, so any financial support, however modest, is always welcome! If you’d like to become a regular donor, you can sign up here. If you are in danger, please call 911. If you are looking for shelter, please call the Assaulted Women’s Helpline at 1-866-863-0511 or TTY 1-833-286-9865.

Wishing you so much love during this challenging time,

From all of us at Birds,

xoxo

NYWS update April 14, 2020

Covid 19 has had a huge impact on so many organizations, including the NYWS, and we're having an online spring sale April 14/15 from which we're donating a portion of sales to help support them through this time. 

So much has happened the last couple of months, including their official opening party! Syd and I attended way back on March 3 (pic of me, Mohini (the Executive Director of NYWS), and Syd below!) when gatherings weren't yet verboten. It was a beautiful celebration of the long awaited re-opening of the new shelter, and an opportunity for everyone to recognize the importance of finally being able to welcome residents back, the first of whom returned to NYWS the very next day, March 4th.

It has been a turbulent time for them, as you can imagine, opening the new shelter just as this pandemic hit the nation, and they've been doing their best to adapt to the changes to health and safety protocol that this situation has demanded.

The amazing staff at NYWS have been keeping us abreast of what's happening at the shelter as they cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. After re-opening in March they had to intentionally slow the pace of intake to ensure the safety of survivors, their children and of the staff. Even so, given the scale of intimate partner and family violence in the community, in less than a month, the shelter is already almost full. 

Though it is heartening that the subject has been discussed in the media so much lately, it's absolutely devastating to hear of the impact that social isolation measures are having on those living with violence. The staff at the North York Women’s Shelter are deeply concerned for those who are effectively trapped in homes for months right now with their abuser(s). The entire country is dealing with unprecedented levels of stress and economic instability, and domestic and family violence is shown to be made worse by pressures such as these. Now is a time that survivors of domestic violence need any extra support that we as a community can offer.

NYWS is doing everything within their means to help. They continue to offer programs and services to meet mental health needs through activities such as family art classes and small or personal exercise classes. They're also working to expand supports to survivors in the community through their crisis line, providing safety plans and increasing their capacity to support community clients over the phone.  

NYWS is also leading the way in taking care of their staff by implementing a Pandemic Hardship Allowance that will support non-management staff during this trying time and support them in making the lifestyle changes needed to be able to come to work. Extra funds are needed for alternative transportation, extra laundry and extra mental health support to be able to keep their staff working in a safe and healthy way, and allowing them to continue to offer survivors and their children the safe environment they deserve.

(another picture from the re-opening party in early March)

They've been able to meet the baseline needs of their residents and staff through donations for the last while, and are incredibly thankful for that, however, their current expenses are higher than anticipated, as you can imagine, due to so many factors associated with COVID-19.

Women and children who are suffering domestic violence are some of the most vulnerable people in our society currently, and if you have the ability, your support is of especially great value right now.

If you would like to donate there are two ways to do this:

1. Making a financial donation through CanadaHelps
Your financial donations will continue to help with Increased cleaning supplies, staff wages (including staff who are off sick or caring for family members), additional cleaning staff, counselling staff, and overtime for staff, increased grocery needs and alternative transportation.

2. Purchasing an item directly from their needs list here: http://a.co/hGUHYsO
The list is on Amazon, and Lindsay keeps it updated as their needs change week to week:

Tablets: to help entertain children and women that are in isolation
Activities and toys: NYWS is creating toy baskets for each child that they can keep that will help them deter the transmission of COVID-19 through shared toys
Art supplies and yoga mats: to support the mental health of residents through art and exercise
Medical Supports: NYWS still supports women even after they leave the shelter. Please consider purchasing an item off the list to support a past resident who is still undergoing knee surgery during this time. Items include a walker, cane and raised toilet seat.
Cleaning and hygiene supplies: soap, TP, wipes
Necessities: baby food, diapers, kitchen equipment

If you would like to purchase items online, please use Canada Post, and deliver to:
Lindsay Sweeney-Hockin
940 Sheppard Avenue West
Toronto, ON M3H 2T6

If you would like to make a donation and drop it off at the shelter, please contact Lindsay at lindsay@nyws.ca for drop-off instructions. Lindsay is the Director of Development at NYWS.

We're all under financial pressure during this time, so if you can't afford to donate funds or to ship items from their list, I know they would appreciate a bit of love on their Instagram so much! Hit them up with some thanks, encouragement, hugs and kisses here.

Thank you so much for reading, for your continued support of Birds and of the NYWS. We appreciate you so much, more than ever during this time.

Wishing you health, safety, and love,

xoxo Hayley

 

NYWS progress update January 19, 2020

The Birds staff were very fortunate to have been offered a personal tour of the new North York Women’s Shelter in December 2019 by the Executive Director, Mohini, and Director of Development, Lindsay. It was an inspiring visit and helped me understand the value and necessity of what they’re doing even more, as well as the importance of continuing to bring support and awareness to the problem of violence against women and children as we enter the next decade.

To start the year off on a positive note, we were able to donate $2047 to the NYWS from our Boxing Week Sale fundraiser, so THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart for all of your support not only during the sale, but for the entire last year as well. I can’t believe Birds will have been ‘a thing’ for 13 years this February (time flies!), and being able to direct some funds towards an organisation like the NYWS is one of the greatest pleasures of being an entrepreneur for me. 

Below is an update on the NYWS progress with a few photos. They’re scheduled to reopen their doors in a few weeks if all goes well!



For a quick visual on how far it's come in the last year, this was the NYWS the last time I saw it back in April of 2019: 

And this was it in late December 2019!

NYWS is one of ten women’s shelters across Canada which was granted a significant amount of funding from the Federal government 2-3 years ago to put into upgrading or rebuilding their facilities. 



The thing that makes NYWS so extraordinary is that they’re not just using the funding to rebuild a bigger, newer version of what they had before. They’ve taken the opportunity to actually rethink what a violence against women shelter should be, how and who it should serve, and have completely redesigned it from the inside out. It’s trans-inclusive, accessible, harm reduction focused, and it’s the first pet-friendly anti-violence shelter in Toronto EVER.



It's also designed in a way that simply makes it comfortable and welcoming for the women and children staying there, which is a consideration that has been lacking in many traditional shelters. No one should feel like they're being punished for needing shelter services.



Below are some highlights of design, accessibility and inclusion issues they are addressing, and features they have included in the new building.



The shelter and attached Community Collective are still in the finishing stages right now, and are not yet furnished, but I have to say that the moment I walked in I felt they had succeeded with the space. There isn’t a hint of institutional coldness about it. It’s modern and clean, but also feels welcoming and calming. The use of natural materials like wood, felt and cork give it a warm, grounded feeling.



The most beautiful area in the shelter is the dining and kitchen area. It’s bright and open while still feeling secure. 

It looks out on a private, secure garden area and has a residents’ kitchen where the survivors living there can prepare food for themselves and their families, and share cooking skills. Preparing their own food is an important part of the healing process for many folks, and a way to take back autonomy and self determination in their lives. There's also an industrial kitchen where meals are prepared for residents who don't cook or for special meals. The industrial kitchen will also be used to offer cooking lessons and education about food security and create opportunities for food justice.

A beautiful and functional feature of the kitchen is a wall of locked wooden cabinets where each resident can keep their own pantry supplies secure. It eliminates the stress that often occurs in traditional shelters with shared pantry space when someone may take food you bought, intentionally or not, especially higher value specialty ingredients. When you're already living in a situation that's outside of your comfort zone, any reduction in these daily stressors makes a huge difference to quality of life. 

There's also a children’s play area directly beside the kitchen so women can keep their children in their sight lines and know they are safe while they prepare meals. The play area hasn’t been furnished with toys, yet, but there is a beautiful child-size wooden table and stool set in the space that was custom built by Sheridan College students. In fact, the students at Sheridan College custom built much of the wooden furniture that will fill the space, from the dining room tables, to entryway benches, to a lovely wooden credenza.
 

The second floor houses the bedrooms - 17 of them total, 40% of which are fully accessible. They open off of a beautiful, open corridor that was designed to be wide enough for a child to ride a tricycle up and down - an important thing to consider in a building where 60% or more of the residents are children at any given time!

‘Way finding’ in the building is helped by each floor having a different theme for the names of the rooms: the basement rooms are named after root vegetables, the main floor is herbs, the second floor is trees, and the third floor is birds. We love birds :)

There's honestly so much more to say about the the new NYWS, I don't have space to get it all down today, but a few other other stand-out features include:

Pet-friendly:

NYWS is the first pet-friendly shelter in Toronto, EVER! It was purpose built to accommodate pets with cat condos and dog kennels, pet friendly finishes on floors, and a pet lounge in the basement. Residents can even sleep in the pet lounge with their pet if they aren’t able to come up to the main shelter due to behavioural issues, fleas, or not being spayed/neutered. Most pets can stay with their humans in their private rooms though!

In approximately 85% of homes where there is violence, the family pets are harmed as well. One thing that came up consistently while NYWS was interviewing survivors to help with the design of the new shelter was that many women have delayed leaving unsafe domestic situations because they were afraid for the wellbeing of their animals if they left them behind. In their ongoing effort to remove as many barriers as possible to women seeking safety, being pet-friendly makes a huge difference. 

Transgender inclusion:

How to safely and effectively accommodate transgender people in shelters continues to be a contentious and complicated issue. NYWS is moving this conversation forward in the right direction by taking the approach that there should be no issue. They basically serve any survivor of violence except cisgender men at the shelter. They are also committed to making space for trans-inclusive events and programming, and have a zero tolerance policy on trans-phobia. The increased space at the shelter (5 lounges, a huge backyard, the large dining room etc.) as well as the privacy available in washrooms and bedrooms, allow folks to develop new skills to live communally while also reducing potential for conflict.

Harm reduction:

NYWS is not a dry shelter. Shelters have traditionally had a zero tolerance policy for alcohol and drugs, which results in many women and children being turned away if a woman shows up smelling of alcohol or smoke.

Self-medication through alcohol and drugs is not an uncommon symptom of those who have suffered trauma. Turning women away because they smell of alcohol or marijuana is not helping anyone, and further isolates and stigmatizes those who need help.

There's currently only one other shelter in Ontario that’s not dry, but NYWS wants to build further on that model, not restricting residents to drink privately in their rooms there, which is not healthy for those struggling with addiction as it can exacerbate tendencies towards solitary binge consumption. As long as residents' behaviour falls within the community guidelines of respect for others, they can enjoy a drink in the communal spaces as they would in their own homes. NYWS also has sharps containers throughout the shelter which is important both to create a means for safe disposal of needles but also an important signal to residents that NYWS is a safe space to disclose drug use to staff and to be supported wherever they are in their journey with substance use.

On-site, trauma-informed design and services:

Survivors told NYWS in pre-design interviews that traveling to appointments can be taxing on their finances, emotional resources and safety at a time when they are in crisis. The Community Collective, that was built to adjoin the shelter, will house a trauma-informed primary care clinic for survivors of gender-based violence, run by the Black Creek Community Health Centre. It will provide trauma-informed, survivor-centric healthcare for both residents, and women and trans folks in the community. Services include primary health care, psycho-social education, health navigation and more, all delivered by specially skilled nurse practitioners doctors and other medical and social service staff.

Not having to leave the shelter to access all these services is vital, especially for women who are dealing with stalking from their partners. On-site services eliminate the safety issues of women having to wait on the street for the bus with their children, and help reduce their vulnerability overall. 

In addition to the primary health clinic, the NYWS Community Collective building also has computers that women in the community can access in case they’re being stalked online at home.  Also offered there are rotating services that are critical to women in rebuilding their lives, such as legal supports, counsel on immigration and settlement, food security, and housing. The city of Toronto has a shocking 80% turnaway rate for women who need emergency shelter because of violence. This means that most women calling for shelter can’t even make it in, so having these resources available to them to help them take steps towards securing their safety is essential.

The Community Collective building also has a 1000 sq ft multipurpose room that is bookable by the community (on a sliding scale!) outfitted with an art sink, mirror, smart tv and portable kitchen. It’s designed to be accessible to both survivors and allies in the community looking to host classes, yoga, art events, meetings, movie nights, and shows that are rooted in empowerment, creativity and healing for survivors. It’s sorely needed in a city where spaces to gather and create are disappearing, or becoming increasingly unaffordable, and especially needed in a service-poor area like North York.

All in all, the North York Women's Shelter is doing incredible, forward-thinking work not only in offering cutting edge services to women fleeing violence, but in bringing those services to the surrounding community as well so that women who may not yet be ready or able to leave an unsafe situation can get the information they need to make the best decision for themselves and their children when they feel the time is right.


 
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NYWS progress update May 2019

I've been working on an update on the North York Women's Shelter since visiting the building site a few weeks ago and wanted to share their incredible progress! We're going to be donating a portion of sales from our spring 2019 Studio Sale in June to the NYWS, and it was so inspiring to see how far they've come with the building. Actually being able to walk around the site allowed me to really understand all the incredible features they have designed into the new shelter.

Mohini Datta-Ray, the director of NYWS (and Birds fan!), led the tour of the shelter. She's an incredible woman, and is deeply and personally invested in her work at NYWS.

One of the many things I find so inspiring about this new shelter build is that NYWS is addressing so many gaps in services provided at traditional VAW (Violence Against Women) shelters through the design of their new building. Everything has been planned with the intention of reducing the institutional feeling associated with shelters, and of increasing comfort, dignity, and a feeling of security for the women and children staying at the shelter. The shelter was also designed by a firm that is owned and run by women, and is built sustainably and with environmentally friendly design where possible.

One example of the move away from an institutional feeling in the shelter is in the simple consideration given to the importance of privacy. The previous NYWS shelter had a total of 30 beds shared between 6 bedrooms, and with only 3 shared bathrooms. You can imagine that there simply wasn't much privacy for the women staying there with their children.

The new shelter is designed to provide up to 40 beds when necessary, but is currently funded to house 30 beds at a time. The huge change is that now the shelter has 17 bedrooms (!) to house those 30 beds, and each bedroom has its own ensuite bathroom. 40% of the bedrooms are fully accessible.

Bedrooms range from having a single bed with a crib, to rooms for up to 4 people. The rooms can also be joined together via secure, shared doors to allow larger families to be together. Many of the bathrooms also have tubs, which have not necessarily been available in other shelters, or if they have had tubs, the shared nature of the facilities has not been at all conducive to wanting to draw a bath for yourself or your children.

You can imagine any woman, having left a traumatising, unsafe situation, just wanting the simple, calming, normalizing ritual of being able to bathe herself or her children before bed in a clean, private tub, and to be able to settle for the night into a space that feels secure and private. These are the kinds of things that make an enormous difference in what is often one of the darkest moments of a person's life.



Another thing that came up during the tour of the building was that each bedroom has a small refrigerator so women can keep some things for themselves in their rooms, including medication that needs to be kept cold.

I hadn't thought about the logistics of this before but women have generally had to surrender any medications they take when they check in to a shelter (even things like Tylenol), and then have to go to the front desk to ask for it when they need it.

The rhetoric has been that it is to protect women in the shelter who might try to harm themselves, but NYWS is looking at the larger picture with issues like this and recognizing that while self-harm is a legitimate concern, it's not a reason to deny women access to their medication. The best solution doesn't lie in removing a basic right from all women, but in providing more support to the women who need it.

The refrigerators will allow clients to keep their medications in their rooms, and to be able to access them when they choose, as they would at home.

The shelter comprises four floors, with an enclosed outdoor area surrounded by an impenetrable 12 foot fence. The simple, but jarring, fact is that the fence is 12 feet high because two men with one standing on the other's shoulders can't climb over it. Facts like these remind me how important it is for women and children who have fled their homes to have a safe place to go in a time of crisis. The design is such that the layout of the building and grounds makes it difficult for people to see into the shelter, but manages to maintain a feeling of openness, space and light. 

There is an industrial kitchen in the building so meals can be prepared for the residents, but there is a big, bright kitchen area for use whenever anyone wants it as well. NYWS wanted to make sure that the women staying there felt like they were able to cook for themselves, and not like they were just being provided meals. Cooking is part of the healing process for many people, and it also allows women to make familiar, comforting food for themselves and their children.

There is also a playroom adjoining the kitchen so mothers are able supervise their children while they are cooking and know they’re safe. On the whole, NYWS is trying to make the new shelter feel less institutional on every level than shelters have been designed to be in the past.

Part of that new approach is the addition of a welcome desk. It will feel more like a hotel reception or concierge experience than a traditional institutional intake procedure. The designers of the shelter have also created a lounge with a private bathroom right beside the welcome area to try to make the entry experience one of caring and warmth from the very start. Women can go into the lounge the moment they arrive and take some time to collect themselves in private. Those who arrive are usually traumatised, and they are also entering an unfamiliar environment, so this, like everything they are trying to do with the new shelter, is designed to help the whole intake experience be more comfortable.



NYWS has decided to officially give up the anonymity that has been the cornerstone of traditional women’s shelters and are hoping that this will help raise awareness as well, taking this issue from something that is whispered about in private to something that can be spoken about openly and productively.

Security concerns have kept women's shelters hard-to-find and anonymous in the past, but in today's world with mobile devices and social media, everyone knows where they are already. The rigid model that has traditionally been in place around shelters in order to maintain anonymity has actually resulted in women being pushed out of shelters for unintentionally compromising the location. Not a situation that was helping anyone.

Visibility in the community, and access are key to the new direction of the North York Women's Shelter. I'll give more information on this in another update, but there is going to be a Community Hub adjoining the shelter that will offer a range of support programs and resources where any women experiencing violence can find information, advice, or assistance. NYWS is hoping that the new public face of the shelter, and visible presence in the community, will allow more women to be aware of the services, and to be able to access the help they need.

One of the things Mohini said she often thinks about is whether there might have been a different outcome for Dr. Elana Frick had she had access to the services that the NYWS is going to be able to offer in their new facility. Dr. Frick was murdered by her husband in Toronto in 2016 and lived very close to where the shelter is located. Mohini wonders if the Community Hub services had been available at the time, whether Dr. Frick might have come in to seek counsel or to get help. She was not the typical woman you’d think of in terms of being in need of shelter services, but if you looked at her profile you would have seen that she had been very high risk for a long time.

This is the crux of the issue. Violence affects so many women and children, and it's probably not who most of us assume it would be looking at the surface facts of people's lives. Unless we have personal experience with shelters or domestic violence, we tend to think of these things as being ‘other people’ issues.

I’ve had way too many women in my life tell me that they have been physically assaulted by their partners or exes, stalked or otherwise terrorised by them in some way, often involving threats towards their children. Just in the last month a long time Birds customer told me she had left a physically and emotionally abusive husband, and that she and her children were being stalked by him. One older acquaintance told me her first husband used to hit her all the time, until she found the courage to leave him.

It's all of us who are and who can be affected by violence. We hope we never need to seek shelter and assistance, but it gives me so much comfort to know that if we do, there is a place like the North York Women's Shelter to catch us in that dark moment.

 

Thanks for reading all of this - I know it's a lot of information! It's important to me to try to spread the word about this shelter for many reasons. Not only do they need the ongoing financial support that businesses like Birds can help facilitate, but it's also important to raise awareness about violence against women and children, and to have honest conversation about it.

If you feel moved to do so, you can always make a donation to NYWS directly here:

https://www.canadahelps.org/en/dn/10634

Thank you from all the Birds!!

xoxo

 

Update on the Riya Rajkumar Amber Alert initiative, July 2019

We've finally got our numbers in for the Akikiki dress fundraiser for the North York Women's Shelter. Back in February of 2019 we dedicated 100% of the profits from the sale of our Granny's Orange Bedroom Akikiki dress to NYWS in memory of Riya Rajkumar.

I'm so happy to say we were able to raise $1990.20 for the NYWS in memory of Riya, thanks to all of you, and are going to make a final donation to them of $2000. We still have a few dresses left, and you can rest assured that all the profits from the sale of this dress will continue to go to NYWS, whether purchased on sale or not, so you can still snap one up as part of this sale or a future sale and know the profits are going to a worthy cause.

We're so grateful to have been able to bring some light and love to the memory of this special girl after her tragic passing. Thank you all for all of your support with this.

 

February 15, 2019 - in memory of Riya Rajkumar

Many of us in Ontario received the Amber Alert on our phones late last night. I was reading in bed when it came in at around 11:30 pm and sent a silent wish to the universe that they would find the girl and her father before anything bad happened. When the second alert came in around 12:30 saying that they had located the father, I hoped she was safe and went to sleep.

This morning, we all woke up to the worst news. 11 year old Riya Rajkumar’s body had been found. She had been killed by her father. It has been on my mind all day.

I feel angry and sad. Angry at the profound betrayal of parent/child trust, and deeply sad for the loss of a valuable life that was taken by someone who had no right. More than anything, I feel like I want this to stop happening.
Earlier today I made a personal donation to the @northyorkwomensshelter in memory of Riya. If you don’t know where to put your pain, I urge you to do the same. A link to their donation page is below:

NYWS donation page: https://www.canadahelps.org/en/dn/10634

I take comfort in knowing that every day, the kind, empathic people at NYWS are providing refuge for women who fear for their safety and the safety of their children, helping them heal from the trauma of abuse and violence, and supporting them in rebuilding their lives. It’s no small thing.

In honour of Riya, we’re also going to be donating all of the profits from the sale of our Akikiki dress in Granny’s Orange Bedroom to the North York Women’s Shelter. It’s the most joyful dress in our collection this season and, though we’ll never have the chance to know Riya, the bit I’ve read about her and the pictures I’ve seen make me think she was someone who would appreciate a colourful, fun dress. We’ll have it available next week - more info to come on that.

Thanks for considering making a donation to NYWS in memory of Riya and sharing this if you are moved to.

Together we are mighty. 💙

 

Image of Riya is courtesy of her aunt's Instagram page @rasheeda_ali