{"id":32164,"date":"2022-11-04T18:47:14","date_gmt":"2022-11-04T22:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=32164"},"modified":"2022-11-04T18:47:15","modified_gmt":"2022-11-04T22:47:15","slug":"womens-centre-of-york-region-celebrated-on-milestone-anniversary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/womens-centre-of-york-region-celebrated-on-milestone-anniversary\/","title":{"rendered":"Women\u2019s Centre of York Region celebrated on milestone anniversary"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Community members came out in force on last Thursday evening to celebrate the milestone 45th<\/sup> anniversary of the Women\u2019s Centre of York Region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was an evening to celebrate and reflect on nearly a half-century of providing myriad services to local women experiencing abuse, but also a time to look ahead to the future; and this future includes recognition from both the Federal and Provincial governments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Women\u2019s Centre of York Region (WCYR) is a Newmarket-based non-profit which provides diverse programs and services for persons identifying as women, including their Managing Changes Life Skills group program that helps women develop basic skills necessary \u201cto become clearer and stronger decision-makers,\u201d financial empowerment initiatives, and Enterprising Careers, which helps participants become \u201cjob ready\u201d with up-to-date skills and confidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The anniversary celebration took place at NewRoads Performing Arts Centre (formally Newmarket Theatre) and included an engaging performance by Canadian musician \u2013 and York Region resident \u2013 Jully Black.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Addressing the audience last week, WCYR Executive Director Liora Sobel underscored the importance of services for persons experiencing gender-based violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is rooted in gender inequality, abuse of power and harmful norms,\u201d said Sobel. \u201cGender-based violence is a serious violation of human rights and a life-threatening health and protection issue. It is estimated that one in three women will experience sexual or physical violence in their lifetime. Nearly one in five Canadians between the ages of 15 and 64 experienced emotional or financial abuse by an intimate partner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile the enforced isolation during the pandemic was intended to keep us safe, it forced many women to be trapped inside their homes with their abusers, resulting in over thirty per cent increase in intimate partner violence and those are only the recorded cases. A hate crime is defined as the intentional killing of women or girls because they are female, [and these] increased over 50 per cent during the pandemic. The statistics are startling and they serve as a call to action for all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The WCYR works with women who have experienced gender-based violence who simply want their lives back, she added, and to be able to \u201clive safely in a supportive community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOften the Women\u2019s Centre is the community they begin to rebuild their lives,\u201d she continued. \u201cWe are honoured to be a part of each and every woman\u2019s journey. We, as a community, as a whole, need to come together now more than ever to support the women and girls who are at risk. We need to continue to create collaborative opportunities to address gender-based violence. We need to put an end to it and ensure we have the resources to support all women in their recovery. Today we start this together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to inviting the audience to become \u201cchange-makers\u201d by donating monthly to the cause, the WYCR announced at the event they had received a significant boost from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, having been named as a recipient of their Resilient Communities fund to help \u201crebuild from the impacts of COVID-19 and effectively meet the changing needs of our community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This wasn\u2019t the only announcement made during the WCYR\u2019s anniversary celebration; Newmarket-Aurora MP Tony Van Bynen announced he was bestowing upon them the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Pin in honour of their service to the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wish to recognize and award the Queen\u2019s Jubilee Pin to the Women\u2019s Centre of York Region for their leadership and compassion provided in the Newmarket-Aurora area,\u201d said Van Bynen in a written statement that was shared from the podium. \u201cThe Queen\u2019s Jubilee Pin was created by the Government of Canada in honour of Her Majesty\u2019s 70 years of service. It is awarded to community members who have shown a commitment to making the lives of their neighbours better, something the women\u2019s centre has been doing for 45 years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Concluded Sobel: \u201c<\/em>We\u2019re grateful to be recipients of the Ontario Trillium Foundation\u2019s Resilient Communities Fund. The global pandemic was an unexpected challenge we faced. We continue to demonstrate our resiliency throughout. The funding will help us with the implementation of our new strategic plan, Our Way Forward, developed with three strategic priorities: build for our future, invest in our people, and support our sustainability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThank you to the Ontario Trillium Foundation for believing in our work and supporting us to meet the changing needs of our community. I am overjoyed with the news of the award for our leadership and compassion provided in Newmarket-Aurora. In two weeks from now when we\u2019re presented with the Queen\u2019s Jubilee Pin, it is not only our leadership we will be celebrating; we will be celebrating the thousands of lives that we have helped change through our 45 years of service in this community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more on the Women\u2019s Centre of York Region, visit www.wcyr.ca.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Community members came out in force on last Thursday evening to celebrate the milestone 45th anniversary of the Women\u2019s Centre of York Region. It was an evening to celebrate and reflect on nearly a half-century of providing myriad services to local women experiencing abuse, but also a time to look ahead to the future; and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":32165,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/2022-11-03-03.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-8mM","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-05 19:00:16","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}