On the evening of December 6, WomenatthecentrE held an event to remember the 14 young women who were murdered 21 years ago at École Polytechnique, as well as all of those who have lost their lives because of gendered violence.

We began by holding a memorial procession where those gathered placed a flower in honour of the 14 women, and a 15th every other woman. Those who participated in the lily procession included Dr. Robin Mason of Women’s College Hospital, Marsha Sfiers of Springtide Resources, and a number of WomenatthecentrE Board and External Liaison Committee members.

A short video was played, featuring members of the first provincial chapter of WomenatthecentrE based in York Region, in which they courageously shared their experiences and lessons learned. Board Director Svetlana Vigor spoke eloquently about her own experiences and why she got involved with the organization.

Following the video, the audience engaged in an open dialogue about the challenges that communities still face, and the positive role men could and should play in the eradication of violence against women.

Thank you to all who attended and participated, and special thanks to WomenatthecentrE member Julia Goldy for her delicious baked goods!

Nneka & Betty - October 2010

On October 31st, 2010, Nneka MacGregor spent the day with Board Director Hazviperi Betty Makoni (Muzvare), Chief Executive Officer and Founder of the GirlChild Network Worldwide, at Betty’s home.

Later, Nneka had the honour of co-hosting on Betty’s on-line radio show, where they were in conversation with Marine Raime, founder of Betterdays Cancer Care, and Barbara Mhangami, athlete and clinician who were the guests that night. The focus was on women of colour, health and wellness, specifically breast cancer.

While in the United Kingdom, Nneka MacGregor met with Nicola Harwin, CBE – Chief Executive of Women’s Aid Federation of England.

Nicola shared her extensive experience spanning 30 years of advocacy and lobbying for local and national domestic violence services.

On October 28, Executive Director Nneka MacGregor visited with the Croydon Family Justice Centre, an amazing integrated co-located facility that supports women and children fleeing abuse. The information they shared will be passed on to the members of the

Many thanks to Jill Madison, the Director and Senior Manager of Community Safety, her staff, especially Esther, and all the other community partners working from the Centre.

WomenatthecentrE is excited to announce the receipt of funding from the Ontario Trillium Foundation to develop our online social network for our members. Working with our creative consultant firm ReiCura, we shall be developing a customized secure online network that will allow us to connect with all our members, especially those in remote areas.

This social network will be an opportunity for our members to connect with one another, with WomenatthecentrE staff, with our Board of Directors, and with our community partners.

The network will feature a resource library, peer-to-peer support, forums for discussion, online training and webinars, and many other interactive features that will really bring us together as a community. The network is due to be launched in January 2011. Thank you to Trillium for their support in this very important initiative.

On August 10th, WomenatthecentrE met with Sarah Wiley, Executive Director of Outward Bound Canada, regarding collaborating on the Women of Courage programme.

The Outward Bound Women of Courage programme is a wilderness journey for women survivors of violence, providing an opportunity for them to experience adventure, challenge, and the beauty of the wilderness.

WomenatthecentrE is collaborating with Outward Bound Canada to customize a course in an urban setting for our members that focuses on increasing self-esteem, self-reliance, and self-discovery. It’s slated to launch in the spring of 2011.

On July 7th, WomenatthecentrE met with Carolyn Dyer, the coordinator for the Violence Prevention Coordinating Council of Durham Region, to finalize the process by which women survivors in Durham region can be supported to ‘come to the table’.

The project is designed to identify barriers that stops survivors from participating in the work to eradicate violence against women, and then to create a forum in the community that promotes healthy and respectful participation by women survivors.

WomenatthecentrE, working with the Peterborough Domestic Abuse Network, met with some amazing women from the Peterborough region to support them in their efforts to get involved in their community. The meeting was facilitated by Eleni Rautiainen, the coordinator of the Peterborough Domestic Abuse Network, and was an opportunity to listen, to network, and to talk about some of the challenges women face in speaking up about abuse.

However the focus was on opportunities available for women, and the ways such participation can transform not just the individual, but the community. WomenatthecentrE will be following up with training for the woman in the fall of 2010.

On June 4th, WomenatthecentrE met with Susan Jewett, the community lead on the Halton Violence Prevention Council, to discuss ways to engage women survivors in the region. WomenatthecentrE will be developing a strategy to support the community, and to identify women who are interested in using their experiences to inform service providers on ways to make systems more responsive to the needs of women and children who have experienced abuse.

On May 19th, WomenatthecentrE held our first fundraising event – the 3 Degrees of Sisterhood Dinner, organized by our creative consultant ReiCura.

Approximately 50 women gathered at Olivia’s at 53 to enjoy the prix fixe 4-course dinner. The night raised money to support the training initiatives WomenatthecentrE delivers to it’s members, such as workshops on self-representation in the family courts.

The 3 degrees represented the fact that every woman in the room was seperated by at most 3 degrees, and reminded us that are all no more than 3 degrees away from a woman who has experienced gendered violence.

Mothers and daughters, sisters and best friends, all turned up on a perfectly sunny evening to enjoy the live music and professional photography courtesy of the exceptionally talented Light Monkey Photography team.

Click here to view the official press release.