Learn about our impact to the community through the stories of the winning charities.

"Thank you, 100 Women, for generously supporting the kids at the Writers' Exchange this year. You are all real heroes! Your support helps hundreds of kids in East Vancouver access safe spaces where they can maintain their community and continue to boost their literacy skills. As this school year keeps moving forward throughout the ongoing pandemic, we continue to open more spaces and reach more kids who continue to be negatively impacted."

"Our team at Dixon is extremely happy and grateful to have been chosen as your charity of choice! On behalf of our board, staff and clients, we thank you for your kindness and all the efforts of 100 Women Vancouver.

Serving the community since 1973, Dixon Transition Society helps to reduce the impact of domestic violence by providing a safe haven for women and children. Transitional housing programs, counselling and outreach services form a continuum of care to help women and children live a life free from violence. 

Funds collected in the amount of $9,700 by 100 Women Who Care Vancouver, will be allocated to the programs of Dixon Transition Society in the following manner:

• Impact Area Funds Allocated Child Support Programming  $5,000  
• Women Support Programming  $2,400  
• Christmas Hampers and Household Programming  $2,300  

Child Support Programming 

Because we value children, Dixon designs programs and services that allow kids to be kids during the stressful times in their young lives. Both Dixon House, our ten-bed emergency home, and Wenda’s Place, our Second Stage Housing program, have Child Support Workers on staff. These workers are responsible for supporting children through their challenging transition period. Children at Dixon can attend workshops and activities like arts and crafts, story time, baking, games, and outdoor activities. We also provide ample play space with toys and books for children. 

Every year, we organize activities and experience for the children that they might not have been capable of affording otherwise. Although COVID-19 limits our ability to gather in person like we normally do for our child support programming, we still hope to create a fun and memorable year for children while following pandemic guidelines and restrictions. Times of physical and social distancing can create feelings of isolation for anyone, especially women and children impacted by domestic violence, and we want to do what we can to alleviate that isolation. 

Keeping safety and social distancing in mind, our child support program will include remote activities, as well as in-person activities conducted in shifts. Activities for the fall of 2020 will include monthly science experiments until Christmas, “take and make” Halloween cookie decorating, and Christmas ornament creation. Your generous donation in the amount of $5,000 will be used to purchase the supplies needed to carry out each of these activities, and to ensure that our children feel safe and secure at all times. 

Dixon Transition Society’s child support program allows children who have been impacted by domestic violence to build confidence, explore their community, and simply have fun and enjoy being a kid. To make this program successful, we rely on the support of businesses and organizations like yours which share our commitment to building a safe and healthy community. 

Women Support Programming 

At Dixon, we care deeply about seeing women live thriving lives free from violence, long past their time at our facilities has come to an end. 

We, therefore, offer a variety of individual support and group workshops that empower women to set goals, gain skills, and live independently. Our workshops include topics such as financial literacy, resume building, self-defence, cybersecurity, income tax assistance, and more. Once a month, clients are invited to participate in a mindfulness group led by our staff counsellor and we are also proud to offer weekly yoga classes. 

Our workshops and classes have previously been held in-person at our transition houses, and involve our clients convening in designated common areas. However, we have had to put a hold on these activities due to the effects of COVID-19. Interviews held with clients in October showed that this lack of programming has resulted in feelings of “loneliness” and “isolation”. The objectives of this project are therefore to lift the spirits of Dixon’s clients and provide them with a sense of normalcy and positivity by redeveloping women’s support programming so that it may be delivered virtually or in-person in a socially distanced manner. 

Altering our programming to offer virtual, and/or socially distanced sessions requires an increased time commitment from staff, and external organizations so that multiple sessions can be carried out with smaller groups. As part of this programming, Dixon will be partnering with Spin & Yin; a fitness studio located in North Burnaby, to deliver spin and yoga classes to our clients, for which Dixon will be required to cover the instructor’s time to travel and teach at our facility. Additionally, individual supplies such as yoga mats, and exercise equipment will be required to minimize/eliminate physical contact. We are therefore allocating $2,400 to our partnership with Spin & Yin. 

Christmas Hampers and Household Programming 

With the holiday season just around the corner, Dixon Transition Society is currently developing holiday programming for the women and children at our transition houses. To ensure that our clients have a joyous and festive time, Dixon would like to provide holiday décor that can be displayed in each individual unit (to avoid socialization in the common room), holiday hampers, and Christmas gifts. Furthermore, we are constantly in need of various household supplies that would make our client’s lives just a little bit easier if acquired. We will therefore be allocating $2,300 from the funds you have raised to obtaining Christmas Hampers, developing holiday-specific, and COVID friendly programming for our clients, and addressing household needs as they arise in the next few months." 

"There have been a number of excellent developments since 100 Women Who Care chose Dan's Legacy Foundation to receive a donation. Half of the donation went towards Dan’s Legacy’s counselling and wrap-around programs for at-risk youth. Dan’s Legacy thanks 100 Women Who Care Vancouver for their generous support, helping over 300 at-risk youth in Metro Vancouver 'get back up and begin working towards their educational, employment, and recovery goals."

Dan’s Legacy is pleased to share part of the 100 Women donation towards a collaborative project with Beauty Night, who also made a presentation at the meeting. Seeing alignment with their respective organization’s mission and clients served, Barbara Coates, Executive Director of Dan's Legacy proposed to collaborate with Beauty Night in organizing the “Trans Extravaganza” conference. The Conference, planned by Dan’s Legacy’s youth clients, will provide opportunities for Trans, Two-Spirit, Non-Binary and Inter-sex queer youth to learn about the resources available to them in Metro Vancouver. Trans youth face multiple challenges, not least knowing how to dress in clothing or style hair and makeup reflective of their identity. Beauty Night provided their expertise in support of this initiative.  

"The 100 Women Vancouver donation would go towards our ‘Stroller & Crib Campaign’. Receiving these costly and essential items gives young mothers the freedom to more easily engage in their community and feel less isolated. 

Baby Go Round’s Stroller & Crib Campaign helps with the two most requested items and the hardest to come by. Babies need a safe place to sleep and moms need a stroller to get out – to connect to her community because not having one leads to isolation. We see 70 families a month and yet only give out an average of 18 strollers because they just don’t have them. Same goes for cribs, last year BGR served 800 families but were only able to give out 271 cribs.

BabyGoRound is a small charity but we make a big impact to families in the Lower Mainland. We only have one employee and roughly 40 volunteers. We operate on $100K a year; however, we deliver over $400K worth of value to the community through our extensive use of volunteers and donated items. This meant that, with 100 Women Vancouver’s donation of $10,000, we were able to provide $40,000 worth of aid to the most vulnerable babies and young children in our community."

Night Hoops Basketball Society is a charitable organization that provides basketball programming for at-risk youth and offers them the chance to be safe, healthy, and learn life skills. A fundamental principle of Night Hoops is inclusion; there are no gender, skill-level to economic barriers to participation. Night Hoops is free for all participants and there are no cuts. For every dollar donated, 75 cents is invested in program delivery and every cent in the budget is intended to benefit the youth.

"100 Women Vancouver’s donation went towards the Night Hoops and Summer Hoops programs which connect youth and their community through the organization of boys and girls basketball leagues based out of community centres, neighbourhood houses, community schools and the youth custody services. 500 participants in 2 boys and 2 girls divisions benefitted from the additional program funding for the Night Hoops Season as well as 100 participatants in 1 boys division for the Summer Hoops Season. 100% of the collective donation benefited youth allowing for the purchase of jerseys that they keep, shoes, shorts, sports bras, basketballs, and prizes for the skills/social events."

"The funds raised from the 100 Women Vancouver went directly to a professional kitchen offering youth pre-vocational training opportunities. Recognizing that our youth are an untapped resource in the job market, this program offers an opportunity to gain valuable skills in the hospitality industry, and to go on to find excellent jobs and create independent lives for themselves.

REACH feels that 100 Women Vancouver would be proud to be a part of a progressive and forward-thinking program that would allow youth to prosper and reach their potential. There will be a plaque for 100 Women Vancouver in the new REACH building that will hang with the other amazing individuals and organizations who have made the new building a reality."