Our Inaugural Fund Year - What have we done?:

Wow! What a year we've had! Since January, we have managed to provide funding to 4 organizations across Canada while also assisting them with raising their public awareness. In addition to that, we also worked in partnership with two organizations to help them raise awareness for their causes by bringing our true stories to the public and their supporters. On the public policy front, we also participated in an important Ontario initiative.

Here are the details on our achievements for the year:

YWCA December 6 Fund - Toronto

As a fledgling organization, we owe a lot to the Canadian Women's Foundation for their guidance in helping us to carefully choose two of the first organizations that we funded this year. The December 6th fund is the first of those, and it had a special meaning for me (Lia) because the YWCA is the organization that gave me shelter when I was a teenager in crisis.

The December 6 Fund is a loan fund that provides small, interest-free loans to women fleeing abusive homes, so that they can resituate themselves into safe housing. These loans help to pay for things such as part of first and last month's rent, utilities set-up, storage, etc. This Up With Women grant will help the December 6 Fund to provide loans to as many as 50 GTA women in need.

This grant was provided with generous funding from SAS Canada.

Compagnie - F Montreal

The second grant chosen, thanks to the guidance of the Canadian Women's Foundation, supports our initiative for the economic empowerment of women. Not only do women need to find safe and affordable housing, they also need to have a way to sustain the new life they have built. Compagnie F provides entrepreneurship and self-employment training to low-income women in the Montreal area. They are one of the most impressive organizations of this kind that I have come across. A well deserved grant.

In giving our grants, we also aim to help the organizations to build awareness. Up With Women has a core-skills-competency particularly in the area of media relations. We provided them with an extensive list of media contacts and some advice in reaching them.

This grant was provided with generous funding from SAS Canada.

Halton Women's Place - Halton Region

This year Up With Women participated in a Motorcycle Ride-a-thon for Halton Women's Place and issued a public challenge to match all donations that came in to Up With Women in support of this cause. Through the help of Up With Women, a press release was written, and the cause (and the challenge) received coverage in 3 community papers (see our "Press" page for one example). Donations rolled in and Up With Women doubled it, making this the most successful fundraiser of its kind for Halton Women's Place.

Halton Women's Place is an organization providing shelter and crisis services for physically, emotionally, financially and sexually abused women and their dependent children and is dedicated to ending violence against women and their children. Their facilities and programs are top notch, and we are proud to support them.

Nekenaan Temporary Housing for Women and Their Children

As an Up With Women Child Advocate, Briar advocates, by sharing her story, and she also creates her own community action projects. Briar and her mother Bridget lived in Aboriginal Women's Housing during Briar's first 9 months of life. The housing building, Nekenaan, provided shelter and support to Briar and her mom that was crucial in helping them to ensure a healthy, safe and productive family life. Thanks to Nekenaan, Briar's mother, Bridget, was able to rebuild her life and become the mother that she was committed to be. She also became a high school and college graduate, and now has a great job as a community worker, helping other women to rebuild their lives.

Briar wants everyone to know what a great life she has, and she thanks Nekenaan for giving her and her mother that start into such a life. Naturally, they became the beneficiaries of her first community action project: Briar enlisted the help of her friends and, together, they sold bracelets to raise money for Nekenaan. Briar has already raised $1,500, and she's not done yet.

Nekenaan is a Transitional Housing Building that provides safe, affordable, temporary housing to Aboriginal women and children. It offers support to assist individuals in obtaining permanent, safe, affordable housing. Nekenaan is located in a newly renovated six storey building that is on a major bus route.

Ontario Government - Poverty Reduction Strategy Consultation

This year, the Ontario Government conducted a province-wide Poverty Reduction consultation. Up With Women was among the organizations who presented recommendations. Out of the 1000 people they met with, our two child advocates, Florencia and Briar (11 and 9 years of age) were the only children to present their own poverty reduction recommendations. You can find their speeches here.

Public Speaking and Media Work

In addition to our grant and policy work, this year Up With Women also partnered with two organizations to help raise awareness for their causes by sharing our stories with the public.

Raising the Roof had its annual Toque Tuesday in February, and we assisted them by speaking at two major supporter events and by speaking to the media. We spoke with an audience of 1500, and made several media appearances on Global TV and CFRB Radio. Please click on the "Press" page to see a sample of one of the Global TV stories.

Raising the Roof reported that, thanks to our participation, they raised significantly more money than they had in previous years. Glad to help.

Up With Women also partnered up with the United Way, to assist them in their annual drive. Lia spoke at over 30 speaking events at major corporations in a little more than a month. Several corporations called back to report significant gains in participation and donations as a result. One major bank reported that the number of major donors ($1,000+) doubled to 110 within 2 days of Lia speaking at the event.