North York Women's Shelter

Run with Team NYWS and help end Intimate Partner Violence! 

Every night in Toronto 185 women and their 238 children sleep in shelters because it isn’t safe to sleep at home.

Since opening its doors in 1984, North York Women’s Shelter has provided a place of safety and support for women and children impacted by violence. In the 35 years since NYWS’s inception, over 11,000 residents have stayed at the shelter – determined to build lives free of violence and abuse.

Our brand new, secure, fully accessible 24,000 square foot complex, provides a 17-bedroom emergency shelter with an emphasis on therapeutic design, and an unique accessible community collective. With emphasis on therapeutic design and the empowering impact of arts-based programming, we are able to provide critical anti-violence support to women in our community who are experiencing violence. With your support, we hope to continue to grow into our space and develop an innovative survivor focused program to end gender-based violence.

By joining , you will be supporting on new expanded programs at NYWS.

Trauma Mental Health counselling:

Clients work with our team to define the goals and outcomes they would like to achieve through therapy. The program is committed to transparency, accountability and informed consent in all decisions regarding the women and their children.

Expressive Arts Therapy program:

Expressive Arts Therapy uses intermodal, approach to counseling by integrating all the artistic expressions such as music, theater, poetry, dance, writing, drawing or other artistic form that uses the individual’s innate creativity. Art is used as therapeutic tool to help initiate change or self-reflection.

Food Justice & Food Security program:

The FSFJ program’s primary objective is supporting residents towards accessing their right to nutritious, culturally competent foods, resource development and the knowledge transfer and exchange (KTE) that comes with the community development. This is a protective factor for food insecurity for residents when they leave the shelter. FSFJ also creates cultural safety for Indigenous women and women of colour for whom a lack of culturally competent foods is a form of structural violence. 

To find out more about NYWS at www.nyws.ca, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.