We launched our "Housing for Women and Children, not cars" campaign at 101 East Cordova Street in January 2020. After four years of lobbying the City of Vancouver to designate the site, which currently houses a seven-storey, above-ground parking lot, for housing for women and children, we decided to use our high-profile windows to send a message to the City. The campaign caught the attention of CTV and Vice News.

See the full CTV News article here.
See the full VICE News article here.

Florence Pierce Transition House:

In February 2020, we opened Florence Pierce Transition House, located in a beautiful 100-year-old house in a quiet neighbourhood of Vancouver. The harm reduction housing program provides safe accommodation, for up to up to six months, for women who are older (55+) escaping violence. Staff are onsite 24 hours a day, seven days a week to support women and provide referrals and information about resources to assist women in achieving the outcomes they identify as a priority.

Strong Women Strong Music:

In celebration of International Women's Day in March 2020, we held our 14th annual Strong Women Strong Music concert series, featuring West Coast's most prominent women jazz musicians, singing in support for Enterprising Women Making Art. 

This event featured two nights of smooth jazz, paired with delicious Italian cuisine, courtesy of Frankie's Jazz Club. For the fifth year in a row, we were thrilled to partner with Vancouver Coastal Jazz and thanks to our generous supporters, we sold out our Sunday show and managed to raised over $6,000 in total!


Thank you so much to everyone who was able to attend as we reminisce on the last gathering we were incredibly grateful to organize before the COVID-19 pandemic hit globally.

We set up a call-in line for women who need support during the COVID-19 pandemic.

If you are self-isolating and need someone to talk to, if you have been laid off, are facing eviction or are low on medication or food, please call us and we will do our best to assist you. We may refer you to resources you are unaware of, resources in your neighbourhood, or just listen. We likely can't fix everything, but we commit to doing our very best. 

Early March 2020 saw British Columbia's Provincial Health Officer declare a public health emergency due to COVID-19, with the BC government declaring a state of emergency the following day.

By April, through the support of our partners, we were able to open the Buchan, a 60-bed recovery resource for people who are homeless and or have nowhere to isolate and who are COVID-19 positive. Two days later, we opened Springer House, a 49-bed temporary transition house for women and children fleeing violence, located in Easter Seals House.

At the end of the month, we opened SisterSquare, a 24/7 respite space for women in the Downtown Eastside so they have a safe place to warm up, have a snack and be connected to health, housing and employment supports amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and the closures and reduction in hours that affected many other much-needed services. The space also includes an overdose prevention site and assistance for women to test their substances. 

September of last year saw the opening of our second childcare centre in Richmond with 61 spaces for infant/toddler to school-aged children, offering a daily lunch program, as well as access to health-care specialists, donated clothing and household goods for families who need them.

River Run also offers dedicated workshops and programming supports for First Nations, Métis and Inuit women through an Elder in residence and Waaban Outreach Support to give them access to supports including traditional learning, life-skills programs and resource information and referrals. 

December 2020 marked the announcement by the Provincial government for their support in creating 40 childcare spaces at The Alex, our new affordable housing complex development in Port Coquitlam that will provide 83 rental homes for women and children and women-headed families in the Tri-Cities area. 

Through the Childcare BC New Spaces Fund and in partnership with BC Housing, there will be 12 infant/toddler spaces, 25 spaces for children aged three years to kindergarten and eight multi-age spaces for families.

Thank you to all of our amazing donors including (but not limited to) the Shoebox Project, Angels in the Night, St. George's School, Semiahmoo Rotary Club, Vancouver Soup Sisters, Soroptomist International of Vancouver, McElhanney Ltd., Elgin Park Secondary, Transport Canada, Vancity Business Babes, & many more who were able to support our holiday giving tradition!

We also received an overwhelming response from individual donors from our online wish lists where people were able to purchase gift items online from home and send them directly to our offices.

Thanks in large part to the tremendous support we received from our community, we were able to provide over 1,500 gifts to every woman and child in our housing and non-residential programs. 

In April, construction will start on Kwa Shangazi (Swahili for auntie's place), a housing development providing 20 safe, affordable homes for 20 women and up to 15 children. Housing applications for this program will open September, with an expected occupancy for December. 

In May, construction will begin on Deirfiúracha, which means sisters in Irish. The program will provide 76 units of affordable, non-market housing for women and children on the western edge of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. The building will include 67 studio units for single women and nine two-bedroom units. Housing applications for Deirfiúracha will open December 2022, with an expected occupancy of May 2023.