North York Women's Shelter

As one of Toronto’s oldest VAW (Violence Against Women) shelters, North York Women’s Shelter (NYWS) has been serving survivors across the GTA for over 38 years. All our programs and services operate from trauma-informed principles to support women, trans, non-binary folks, and their children to build lives free of violence. We are committed to learning, evolving, and adapting to evidence-based and holistic research to address gender-based violence on both the frontlines and a systemic level. 

In March of 2020, we opened our doors to a brand-new,17-bedroom, fully accessible emergency shelter and anti-violence building: the Anne Marie D’Amico Community Collective. Every aspect of this shelter was built and conceptualized in discussion with survivors who helped us create a facility that was truly designed for survivors, by survivors. In this space, we provide judgement-free safe shelter, advocacy, and a range of individualized, survivor-centered, programs and services.  

Our core programs include Trauma Counselling, Expressive Arts Therapy, Food Justice & Food Security, as well as our Kennel for Pets. 

As the rates of gender-based violence have continued to rise in direct correlation to stressors resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, NYWS has continued to innovate and expand programming to better respond to the needs of the community. The new programs include: 

Case Management Program:

The Case Management program provides support to our in-house residents to identify community resources and services and connect residents to them. NYWS’s case management program is designed to provide individualized, survivor-centered support and can include but is not limited to anything from medical appointments, utilizing employment services or accessing adult education courses, or even legal services.

Children’s Educational Facilitator:

Research data confirms that academic performance often declines when children experience big transitions such as entering a shelter. Adapting to school after moving to a shelter is a difficult transition that has only been rendered more difficult to the COVID-19 pandemic. To address the barrier this created, NYWS hired a Children’s Educational Facilitator, who works on identifying the barriers to their academic performance and develops a long-term plan to help them excel. They work closely with our Trauma Counsellors, Expressive Arts Therapists, and their parents to ensure they deliver individualized support to each child setting them up for long term success. 

Transitional Support Worker:

The Transitional Support Worker provides transitioned survivors (clients who are either in the process of transitioning out of the shelter or have very recently left), to access and navigate community services. Oftentimes, the Transitional Support program involves support navigating and securing affordable housing- critical in a city with a housing crisis like Toronto. However, the Transitional Support Worker connects residents to any services or programs they need for themselves or their families to ensure they are supported post-transition from NYWS.  

Join the NYWS team on September 11, 2022 as we walk/run to raise awareness of the shadow pandemic of gender-based violence. 

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