New Hire

Nancy McIntosh
Community Relations Coordinator

Thy YWCA Niagara Region staff and board members would like to welcome Nancy McIntosh to the YW team as our new Community Relations Coordinator.

In her role, Nancy hopes to publically elevate the essential role that the YWCA plays as a turning point for women, and their families, in need in Niagara.  She will be responsible for building and maintaining excellent relations with YWCA’s constituents as well as developing new relationships with prospective donors. Nancy is bringing a wealth of information to the team and has big plans for fundraising opportunities and rebranding the YWCA.

Gladys Wood
Accounting Coordinator

 

 

 

Community Donations

THANK YOU FOR YOUR COMMUNITY SUPPORT!

The YWCA Niagara Region would like to thank Fulton Fitness and the community donors who are continuing to reach out and fill our shelves with much needed food items. Support your YWCA and bring a bag of groceries to Fulton Fitness, located at 14 James Street and receive a free gym membership for one month.

We are always grateful to receive food items as 80 percent of our shelter relies on generous donations. Your donations make it possible for our kitchen staff to make 150 nutritious meals daily for the women and children who accesses our shelters.

Interested in donating food items?
Please call our receptionist at 905-988-3528 

2010 Women of Distinction Recipients
Arts and Culture
Stephanie Jones

Education, Training and Development
Gay Douglas-Broerse

Health & Wellbeing
Pat Hundertmark

Public & Community Service
Betty Boyd

Science & Technology
Ann Sperling

Trades Professions & Entrepreneurship
Chief of Police Wendy Southall 

2010 Vicky Hull Young Women of Distinction Recipients
Arts and Culture
Brianne Lidstone

Community Service
Jennifer Cooper

Sports, Recreation and Leisure
Amanda Scavo

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE RECIPIENTS!

 

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New Brochures Available

Running hand in hand with our recently launched website the YWCA Niagara Region has revamped our Program and Services Brochure as well as our Job Route for Women Brochure.

In addition, we have also added four new Rack Cards describing our Housing and Programming.

Available at our St. Catharines and Niagara Falls Locations!

YW NEWSLETTER

Issue 1, October 2009

Issue 2, June 2010

 

 

Core Values

Vision and Mission

 

 

 

 

 

2010 Board of Directors

President Caren Burt
1st Vice President Katie Finora
2nd Vice President Hilary Caters
Treasurer Lisa Frattini Burgess
Secretary Shannon Valenti

Members

Bonnie Nistico-Dunk
Cindy Crossley
Carolyn Fish
Jessica Potts
Lynne Charnock
Pamela Carrera
Rebecca Raby

Contact our Executive Director to
JOIN THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Message from the Executive Director

September 30, 2009

Welcome to the YWCA Niagara Region website.  We are so excited to launch our new website and to be able to connect with you in this new format.  Please take the time to read the pages and I would encourage you to sign up for our e-newsletter so we can continue to stay connected with you and keep you informed of what is new and what events are coming up.  We are very proud of our new website and hope that you will enjoy learning more about our organization and how we are supporting women and their families.

As it has been a while since we have connected with you, I would like to tell you what we have been doing.  We have been assessing our current programs and in so doing are recognizing the strengths that we have and how our programs link together to provide a continuum of services.  In assisting women who are experiencing crisis in their lives we are able to provide not only emergency housing through our shelters but are able to provide a bridge from crisis to independence and stability through our transitional housing programs and employment programs.  We recently created an On-Site program which houses 6 additional women in our Niagara Falls shelter - making this program the bridge between emergency housing and Off-Site trasitional housing. It is in the areas of the latter programs that we are seeing the most growth.  In the past two years we have grown our Off-Site Transitional Housing Program from four apartments to twenty-five apartments and have expanded into the Niagara Falls community from St. Catharines.  

We are now moving into the Welland community with another ten apartments.  What excites us about this program is the partnership with landlords and the ability for the women in this program to assume the lease after a year and so achieving permanent housing.  Our employment program has expanded over the last two years so that we are now providing services in the Niagara Falls, Welland and Grimsby communities at various locations.

In this past year we also began a new Transitional Housing program that supports teen girls.  We had identified that teen girls were a particularly vulnerable population and that providing transitional housing supports would increase their ability to transition successfully into adulthood.  We have also identified the need for girls centered programming and we now offer several programs that support girls from 8 years old and into their teens.  These programs create opportunities to learn everything from what healthy relationships look like to dealing with media pressure and lots in between. 

As an organization we are committed to ensuring that our programs and services are relevant and serve the community in the best possible way and to that end we continue to work with our partners and funders to look for ways to link closer together and to ensure that some of the most vulnerable women and children in our community are given what they need to have stable and independent lives. 

We look forward to continuing our connection with you and keeping you informed of our progress and new innovations in serving our community.  We encourage you to stay connected with us and hope that you will consider us when you are looking at where to invest your time, talent and financial support.

With the utmost respect,

Elisabeth Zimmermann
Executive Director
YWCA Niagara Region