20 17 ANNU AL REPOR T Gaining M omentum resulted in lasting, YWCA childcare provided A message respectful and empowering quality education to more relationships with our than 300 children. from our community’s most vulnerable women and In reflection, this past year children. Our YWCA provided the YWCA Regina CEO Outreach team worked a platform to Speak the with nearly 200 women and Change Loudly, children this year, opportunities to Act the supporting them in feeling Change Deliberately and a MOMENTUM secure in their homes and momentum to Expect the relationships, and sharing Change to Begin Now. We The past year sped by us with them the knowledge have always been an with a force that caused a and resources needed to example of audacity and shift in conversations in our create successful futures perseverance, thanks to the community and across the for themselves. synergy and determination country, and the YWCA of folks of the YWCA Regina saw great This year also saw community. With this as momentum in our important work toward our foundation, we are movement as well. As we Reconciliation. We optimistic about the continued to confront the acknowledged that our systemic changes to come. systems and assumptions systems and communities that perpetuate gender- are broken as racism Melissa based inequities, social against Indigenous people Coomber-Bendtsen media campaigns such as prevails throughout. YWCA Chief Executive Officer #MeToo simultaneously Regina demonstrated its provided a platform that commitment to action and highlighted the magnitude reconciliation through our of these vulnerabilities. YWCA Big Sisters' Shared Journeys program, which Throughout the year, the supported young people in stories of trauma and having conversations about silencing that we hear in reconciliation. In addition, our work every day were the YWCA Reconciliation displayed across social Committee started its work media platforms and this year, which included discussed by women of participation in Orange Shirt diverse backgrounds. Our Day and the facilitation of a community saw women’s staff development voices given space and workshop. gender-based statistics given faces. This As part of our momentum, while Reconciliation work, YWCA encouraging for us, also Regina continued to illustrated the work yet to support children and youth be done. by focusing on developing supports they need to form Our journey this year healthy relationships and focused its approach to develop long-term ensure that we worked resiliency. YWCA Big with women and families Sisters program had 41 one where they are at in their to one life changing healing journey. This matches in 2017 and 2 YWCA REGINA 2017 ANNUAL REPORT Little Sister Zayad joined the By now, the pair have been A Friendship Big Sisters program with her matched for several months, siblings during the summer of and watching their relationship to Last a 2017. Being new to Canada, develop is nothing short of the family had been through magical. Zayad’s mom smiled some difficult times, and the warmly when asked about Lifetime girls were in need of mentors. how she liked her Big Sister, and explained to us that on Zayad -- who has been deaf their meet-up days, Zayad gets since birth -- is a happy and up really early and waits all day content young girl, but seems by the window until Meaghan to take a secondary role when comes to pick her up. At one compared to her siblings. It is of our group events, Meaghan a busy family and she doesn’t came late and when Zayad command attention like her saw her, she ran and gave her little sisters do. Because of the biggest hug, grinning from her hearing impairment, we ear-to-ear. The joy that this knew that finding a Big Sister friendship has sparked in both for Zayad would be all the Zayad and her Big Sister is more challenging, but it was truly heartwarming, and something we were proves that a connection is determined to do. more than words. That fall, Meaghan, an It is a privilege to support and engaging and warm volunteer celebrate a match with unique applicant, was paired with and diverse needs, and our Zayad. ability to do so highlights the inclusivity of our programs. YWCA BIG SISTERS FACTS Volunteer matches foster positive relationships and healthy lifestyles and choices. In 2017, 37 volunteer mentors were matched with 29 children and youth. We had 51 unmatched littles, demonstrating the popularity and necessity of the program in our community. YWCA REGINA 2017 ANNUAL REPORT 3 We met James, an 11-month YWCA CHILDREN’S A Family old boy, in November of 2016 HOUSING FACTS when he moved in to our Kids in Transition Shelter (KITS). As YWCA Regina has three Reunion with all of the children in our children’s housing facilities: home, a search was launched KITS, Evergreen, and Parker for a suitable family member Place. KITS is an emergency who could take James under receiving home that can their care. Contact was made accommodate up to 10 children with the boy’s biological father, who have recently come in to Ryan, who was living outside care, and Evergreen and Parker of Saskatchewan, and he Place are long-term therapeutic began making the inter- homes for children with provincial bus journey at 3AM complex needs who require every Saturday to meet his special placement while in the son. care of the Ministry of Social Services. With time, Ryan’s trips to see James grew more consistent The majority of children in and the KITS support staff YWCA care will have also enjoyed getting to know him experienced homelessness at with each visit’s pick up and least once in their lives, and are drop off. Mutual trust was vulnerable to the complex established, and stories of issues created by homelessness, James’ progress as he passed including increase illness and developmental milestones poor health, developmental were shared. Our staff had the delays, nutritional deficiencies, privilege of watching the little and traumatic episodes. boy grow as he discovered solid food, take his first steps, speak his first words, and begin potty training-- all highlights shared with his dad every Saturday at pick up. 432 days after James began living with us, Ryan picked him up to begin their life together. Shortly after, we received this note from Ryan: “I thank [you] for taking good care of my son and [hope] that the Lord will bless [you] because he always blesses those who bless me and my household. It means so much that [James] was well cared for and I can tell he learned well”. The story of Ryan and James’ reunification has taught us the power of family, and that when we work towards keeping families together, amazing things can happen. 4 YWCA REGINA 2017 ANNUAL REPORT Lauren first arrived at YWCA in It was February of 2018 when Overcoming December 2016 feeling lost Lauren received a letter from and alone. Unsure of where to the University of Regina: she’d Obstacles and begin, she knew she had to been welcomed to the make changes in her life but institution as a Sessional the thought of starting all over Lecturer. The moment brought Achieving again was terrifying. She’d tears to her eyes because, as faced various forms of trauma a child, she had always Dreams and struggled with addictions dreamed of teaching at a following the deaths of two university level. Her new job important people in her life. prospects are now motivating Lauren carried a lot of guilt for her to complete the Parole a bad decision that led to her Program and begin her life incarceration, and in June outside of the YWCA. 2017, her addictions took hold of her thoughts and impacted every decision she made, YWCA PAROLE PROGRAM which led her to recognize she FACTS didn’t want to live this way any longer. The residence program is a communal living environment After a visit with the YWCA based on a supportive housing Regina’s Kikinaw Residence model, with 24-hour staff office staff, Lauren knew the support to limit barriers to YWCA was where she would health and stability. Emergency get the help necessary to temporary housing is available navigate this pivotal transition in addition to the option to rent in her life. She began on a monthly basis. The attending Narcotics residence houses up to 6 Anonymous (NA) and women in a Day Parole Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) Program for Correction Service meetings daily, as well as Canada, and aims to help Women’s Self-Management, a women adjust and adapt to course offered through the living in the community. Parole Program. Not only did she notice her self-worth improve, she started seeing her beauty as well, and using the YWCA’s fitness centre helped her realize that she didn’t need drugs or alcohol to feel content. YWCA REGINA 2017 ANNUAL REPORT 5 Abdallah and his family are In the beginning, Abdallah’s A Warm from Syria. When the situation children cried when they grew unsafe at home, his arrived at the childcare centre, Welcome family fled to Lebanon where but now they cry if they have the fifth of his six children was to stay away. He is deeply born. While his extended appreciative of YWCA Regina family continues to live in staff for loving and caring for Syria, he was contacted by his family, and considers the United Nations and asked if he centre an integral part of his wanted to relocate his family family’s lives. Stories like to Canada. He ultimately Abdallah’s demonstrate how decided to leave Lebanon YWCA Regina creates a sense because he felt it would help of community by investing in his family and recently, the newcomer families and their family welcomed their newest wellbeing.