c ommuniqué Women’s Community House I N T H I S I S S U E Grand House Party 10th Anniversary Epic Walk A Mile in Her Shoes Mine101 Turns One! Community Corner From the Executive Director Annual General Meeting Grand House Party 10th Anniversary Epic Our biggest and best show yet! Thursday, June 14, 2012 N E W S L E T T E R I s s u e 1 - 12 This year, rather than focus on a particular music genre, we decided to celebrate the milestone of Grand House Party’s 10th anniversary in epic fashion! Everything about this year’s Grand House Party 10 promises to be great – from the set design, to the orchestra, to the ten vocalists, to the list of 20 epic songs from the last three decades, including some very special surprises. GHP 10 will be a two-hour rock, pop, soul extravaganza that, for starters, will feature EPIC hits from: • the sophisticated, smooth, soaring, soulful sounds of Chicago • the iconic Michael Jackson • and that great Canadian rock institution Lighthouse plus ... Queen, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Fleetwood Mac and more. So plan to join us for this Epic celebration... Tickets: $45 on sale April 15, 2012 online at www.grandhouseparty.ca or at the Grand Theatre box office (519) 672-8800. To learn about sponsorship opportunities, contact Pamela Coray, Development Manager at (519) 642-3003 ext 2252.
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communiquéWomen’s Community House
I N T H I S I S S U E
Grand House Party 10th Anniversary Epic
Walk A Mile in Her Shoes
Mine101 Turns One!
Community Corner
From the Executive Director
Annual General Meeting
Grand House Party
10th Anniversary EpicOur biggest and best show yet! Thursday, June 14, 2012
N E W S L E T T E R I s s u e 1 - 1 2
This year, rather than focus on a particularmusic genre, we decided to celebrate the milestone of Grand House Party’s 10thanniversary in epic fashion!
Everything about this year’s Grand HouseParty 10 promises to be great – from the set design, to the orchestra, to the tenvocalists, to the list of 20 epic songs fromthe last three decades, including some veryspecial surprises.
GHP 10 will be a two-hour rock, pop, soulextravaganza that, for starters, will featureEPIC hits from:• the sophisticated, smooth, soaring,
soulful sounds of Chicago• the iconic Michael Jackson• and that great Canadian rock
institution Lighthouseplus ...Queen, Stevie Wonder, ArethaFranklin, Fleetwood Mac and more.
So plan to join us for this Epic celebration...Tickets: $45 on sale April 15, 2012 onlineat www.grandhouseparty.ca or at theGrand Theatre box office (519) 672-8800.
To learn about sponsorship opportunities,contact Pamela Coray, DevelopmentManager at (519) 642-3003 ext 2252.
are you man enough?
Walk a Mile in Her Shoes®
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Good News Afoot! Women’s Community House welcomes TenderTootsies as title sponsor of the London Walk a Mile inHer Shoes® event.
Join the hundreds of London and area men who eachyear collect pledges for the opportunity to prove theyare man enough to walk one mile – once aroundVictoria Park in downtown London – in red high heels!
This year’s goal is to raise $45,000!
It’s simple! Register online at www.walkamilelondon.com andreserve your red high heels. We can fit up to a size17! You can download a pledge form and sponsorscan donate online. Walk alone or organize a team!
Refreshments and door prizes follow the walk atCentennial Hall!
Registration opens July 27, 2012!
Register early and be the team to beat on the Walkwebsite scoreboard!
Mine101 turns One!Wow! It is hard to believe that it has been a year sinceMine101 first opened their doors to the public. Tocelebrate, an open house was held on the evening ofThursday, March 29th which included a fashion showwith staff and volunteer models from the shelters,delicious food, a 1-year birthday cake and, of course,shopping! We have gained many loyal customers thispast year and continue to enjoy meeting new customersevery day. Receiving a large quantity of wonderfuldonations makes it easy for us to ensure that there isalways a great selection of items that hit the racks.
Mine101 is Women’s Community House’s socialenterprise, a different kind of second-hand clothing storefeaturing great clothes at great prices in a greatatmosphere. Mine101 also lets you do good while youlook good. Proceeds from our sales go to supportprograms for children and women through Women’sCommunity House!
If you haven’t explored Mine101’s awesome deals yet,please come visit us soon. We are located at 900 OxfordStreet East in Bellwood Plaza across from theSuperstore.
We look forward to serving Londoners in new andcreative ways in the coming years!
2012 Walk Steering Committee is Matt Brown, Johanna Drennan, Cathy Everett, CharleneJones, Henry Pateman, Dawn Simons, Allyson Taylor, Peter Testa and Jim Yeomans.
Women’s Community Housecelebrates completion ofrenovationsWomen’s Community House (WCH) celebratedthe completion of renovations at its Second StageHousing with an open house event on January13, 2012. Among the over 80 guests were EdHolder, MP London West, representatives of the
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation(CMHC) and Mayor Joe Fontana. WCH staff andvolunteers were on hand to give tours and showoff the beautiful renovations.
The federal government, through CMHC,provided $127,500 to the project through theShelter Enhancement Program (SEP) whichfunded the replacement of all exterior windowsand some of the hallway flooring. The Ministry ofCommunity and Social Services provided fundingfor elevator upgrades and replacement of allcupboards in the units and community areas.
“Through this support, we are not only helpingrepair housing, we are helping repair people’slives, to give them hope and give them dignity,”Holder said. “With the completion of theserenovations, residents can confidently call theirhouse their home.”
“Today is an exciting day for Women’sCommunity House,” said Shelley Yeo, Director ofTransitional Housing and Community SupportPrograms. “Thanks to the support of CMHC and the provincial andmunicipal governmentpartners, we wereable to completemuch needed renova-tions at our SecondStage Housing, whichprovides housing forwomen and theirchildren who arefacing challengingsituations. It’s important for them to have a safe,well-maintained place to call home.”
Excerpts taken from London Community News articleSaturday January 21, 2012
Giving Begins at a Young Ageby Michelle Mols
Our daughter’s birthday is fairly close to Christmas
so to minimize the amount of gifts she would
receive for her second birthday we decided to
think outside of the box which led us to the
concept of sharing with children who may be in
need of a new toy to lift their spirits. Sometimes at
birthdays the main focus is gifts, especially for
children, and we thought this would be a good age
to shift the focus away from gifts, gifts, gifts and
move it towards giving. And since we were still
putting away the many Christmas toys, we felt that
having more new toys come into the house with
the birthday party would be a little overwhelming. I
thought donating to a shelter would be a good
idea so I did some Internet research to find shelters
that were local to me. In my search, I came across
the Women’s Community House website.
Available on the site was a full list of needed items,
specific to each month, which was so helpful. This
enabled me to put a short list of items that I knew
people were in need of on each of the birthday
party invitations that I sent out.
We had a good turnout for the party and I was
pleasantly surprised as family and friends put
together some beautiful donation baskets,
including pajamas, socks, underwear, kitchen
utensils, dish detergent, combs and many other
needed items. I found people were really open
to the idea.
We had a great time celebrating our daughter’s
birthday without the focus on opening gifts. And
the most amazing part was that my two-year-old
daughter did not notice one little bit. We made
arrangements with Women’s Community House in
the week following the birthday party to deliver the
donations.
We have now decided that every other year for
my daughter’s birthday we will choose a different
cause and donate to it, such as toys and books
for the Children’s Hospital or pet supplies for the
Humane Society. This way she will grow up
appreciating the joy of giving and helping those
in need.
Manoeuvring the Family Court SystemIn the fall of 2011, Women’s Community House
was awarded a grant from the Ministry of the
Attorney General to implement the Family Court
Support Worker Program (FCSP) for London and
Middlesex. Our partnering agencies include
London Abused Women’s Centre, Victim
Services of Middlesex, Across Languages,
Merrymount Family Support and Crisis Centre
and Carrefour des Femmes du Sud-Ouest de
l’Ontario. The program offers direct support to
female and male victims of domestic violence
going through the Family Court System by:
providing information about the family law
procedures and processes; assisting with
recording abuse for court documentation;
accompaniment to the Family Law Information
Centre and court proceedings; aid in accessing
legal help; and discussing court outcomes,
lawyers appointments, and consultations with
duty counsel. The FCSP is currently in all 44
jurisdictions in Ontario and, judging from the first
few months, it is a much-needed resource.
Creatively CelebratingInternational Women’s Dayby Celine Maiolino, Women’s Community House Placement Student
Each year, we mark International Women’s Day
in many ways to celebrate the women in our
lives. This year, we embraced this day at
Women’s Community House with women,
children, staff, volunteers and students working
together to create posters that focused on
positive themes and ideas of hope. The creative
artwork was gathered up and placed throughout
London at venues such as the Courthouse, the
Market, Dundas Street East and the London
Public Library, as well as several malls in the
area. Each poster indicated that it was created
by a woman or a child currently in shelter.
Throughout this collective process, everyone
felt connected and inspired by the more
global meaning to this project. Thank you to all
of the wonderful
women in our lives.
COMMUNITY CORNERWomen's Community House continues to celebrate al l that our community does to support
us in various ways throughout the year and through al l the seasons.
communiqué
Kate Wiggins, Shelley Yeo and Ed Holder
Shelley Yeo givinga tour of SSH
Women’s
Community
House
Providing safe places
and services for
abused women and
their children
101 Wellington Road
London, Ontario
N6C 4M7
Ph: 519 . 642 . 3003
Fax: 519 . 642 . 3002
TTY: 519.963.0427
www.shelterlondon.org
WCH video on website a look inside the shelter
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Research us atwww.cra.gc.ca/donors
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Greetings from all of us here atWomen’s Community House!Life has been, and continues to be, busy andexciting! Not only did Shelley Yeo, Director ofTransitional and Community Services atWomen’s Community House (WCH), and I havethe opportunity to attend the 2nd WorldConference of Women’s Shelters held February27th - March 1st in Washington, DC, but we both(along with our colleagues) were fortunateenough to be selected to present at thisconference where there were 1,468 delegatesfrom 84 countries in attendance! My teampresented on the “High Risk Safety Project”relating to holding high-risk men moreaccountable. Shelley presented with 2 differentteams. One group presented I Step Forward to End Violence and Abuse and Make It OurBusiness, two workplace training initiativesshifting workplace cultures and trainingchampions to end abuse in communities,workplaces and homes. The second group she presented with was about the Woman AbuseScreening Project, how 130 women abuse,sexual assault, mental health and addictionagencies in 11 regions are collaborating withwomen with lived experience in these areas to increase capacity and reduce barriers forwomen accessing shelters.
And there’s additional exciting news…We celebrated our social enterprise Mine101’sfirst birthday on Thursday, March 29th. Wow!How very proud we are of this beautiful store andthe women who run it! I hope that you all have
had, or will take, the opportunity to visit our store.
It is my honour to introduce you to our new FamilyCourt Support Worker team. Rita Galea, who hasworked for WCH for many years, was hired as ourFamily Court Support Worker in December of2011 and is assisted by her super supportperson, Suzie. This duo is already making adifference helping victims of domestic violencethrough the family court process. Go Team!
A great new partnership for WCH has beenestablished. Soup Sisters, a non-profit charitablesocial enterprise dedicated to providing comfortto women, children and youth through themaking, sharing and donating of soup founded in2009 by Calgarian Sharon Hapton, will be makingover 200 servings of fresh homemade soup from the heart for the families at WCH. SoupSisters’ “warming hearts…one bowl at a time”launch was held on March 26th at the LondonTraining Center. For more information about thisgreat group and to find out how you can getinvolved with them, check out their website at http://soupsisters.org.
In closing, I wanted to mention that we haverecently completed our 2012/13 budget processand it appears that we have a challenging yearahead of us. We extend our most sincereappreciation to all of our solid donors whosupport women and their children on their pathfrom abuse to safety and freedom of choice.
Peace,Kate WigginsExecutive Director
From the Executive Director
S A V E T H E D A T E
2012 Women’s Community House
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETINGMonday, September 24, 2012
London Music Club
6 p.m.
Guest speaker: TBA
Watch the WCH website
www.shelterlondon.org for further details.
The 2011 Women’s Community House AnnualGeneral Meeting was held at the London MusicClub on September 26th. Special guest speakerAllison Dunn shared about her experiences in Indiaregarding literacy and women’s issues.