Program Updates
Squamish Yoga: A reminder, women’s yoga by donation is offered at the Yoga Studio Squamish (37776 Second Avenue) from 9:30-10:30 am every Thursday.
Whistler Karma Yoga: Offered every Thursday from 9:00-10:00 am at Whistler Women’s Centre (1519 Spring Creek Drive). Childminding is available.
Breastfeeding Support Group: La Leche League is happening once a month at Whistler Women’s Centre next held on November 26 and December 18 from 10:00 am-12:00 pm.
Whistler PEACE Program: Our children’s counsellor is co-facilitating three 5-week groups in Whistler including a Girls Lunch Group, with a focus on providing a safe sharing space for girls to have open dialogue and receive support around relevant issues like sexualized violence, consent, relationships etc. The other groups are at Spring Creek Elementary, with a focus on teaching skills such as self-regulation while having fun creating art and crafting.
16 Days of Activism
16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence is an international campaign from November 25-December 10. Starting on International Day Against Violence Against Women and ending on International Human Rights Day, the dates for the campaign were chosen to emphasize that gender-based violence is a human rights violation.
Each year, a different theme is selected. This year, the campaign’s call to action is to end gender-based violence in the world of work. As such, Howe Sound Women’s Centre Society is calling on community partners, organizations, and businesses to collaborate in spreading awareness on the issue of violence and harassment in the work place. Examples of ways your organization could participate include:
- Screening a film related to gender-based violence or violence in the work place
- Staff training on violence in the work place
- Developing and/or updating work place policies and procedures and staff training
- Arranging for a guest speaker
- Share and discuss facts sheet with your teams
- Facebook post to your members acknowledging 16 Days
The Women’s Centre will be putting out a calendar of activities with all participating organizations, including Squamish Public Library and the Hotspot Community Resource Centre. To be added to the calendar, contact Shana Murray (cpm@hswc.ca or 604-892-5748) with the date(s) you will be participating, what you will be doing, and if it is an internal event or open to the public.
Stocking Stuffers Needed
Help us spread joy this holiday season by contributing stocking stuffers for the children and youth that attend our holiday open house in December.
Consider donating the following items:
- Toys and Crafts for children of all ages
- Books and games
- Cozy mitts, socks, and toques
- Gift cards to stores
- Gift cards for an experience (Rope Runner, Climbing Centre, tubing, etc.)
- Pyjamas
Grocery gift cards and gas cards or bus passes for travel are also appreciated to help ease the financial burden for the women we serve this holiday season.
For more information contact Howe Sound Women’s Centre at 604-892-5748. Donations can be dropped off Monday-Thursday 10:00 am-4:00 pm at 38021 Third Avenue, Squamish.
Crosshatch Training Forum
Mark your calendars! The inaugural Crosshatch Training Forum will take place on March 2-3, 2020 at the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre in Whistler, BC. Details on the schedule and ticket purchasing will be presented in the next enewsletter.
Opening the forum is a keynote speech from Dr. Natalie Clark of Thompson Rivers University. When she is not running healing groups with Indigenous girls in her home community of Turtle Valley, Dr. Clark researches and presents papers and workshops on such issues as Access to Justice, Resistance and Resilience for Frontline Workers, and the complexities of Trauma-Informed Practice. Her work is informed and mobilized through her interconnected identities including her Métis ancestry; as a parent of three Secwepemc children, and part of the Secwepemc community through kinship ties; an academic, activist and sexual abuse counsellor.
Also featured is a three-hour workshop on the legal process, entitled "911 to Probation: A Guided Tour of the Justice System." Our facilitator for this is Michelle Cameron, the chief investigator for Sexual Misconduct at UBC. She is a 2-spirit Dakelh woman, Frog Clan, from Ts’il Kaz Koh Nation in Northern BC, and has a background working with (and investigating) the RCMP. She is a highly experienced facilitator and is ready to help us align our services to provide better support for victims.
The forum will include many eye-opening workshops to help us with our practice. We will have presenters from WAVAW speak about trans inclusion. We have a speaker from MOSAIC to talk about access to services for victims in culturally isolated communities. We have guests from Deborah's Gate coming to speak about the realities of human trafficking in the Corridor. We will look at Gladue Report writing, the legal protocol around working with mature minors, and we will have a Family Law literacy session. We will discuss how to support families after an assault, and also how to support men and boys who are victimized. We will also have a session on internet safety in the context of sexual assault prevention.
We are looking forward to taking this time to renew our practice and honour the interconnected nature of our work.
“We are volcanoes. When we women offer our experience as our truth, as human truth, all the maps change. There are new mountains.”
- Ursula K. LeGuin
