Ever wonder what a typical day looks like at the Women’s Centre? We’ve compiled some statistics from the last month to show you what happens in just one of the three program areas, Basic Needs.
Basic Needs includes volunteers making referrals for food, clothing, furniture, and haircuts as well as sharing information about other resources around the city. They provide personal care items from sanitary products, condoms and pregnancy test kits to birthday gifts and bus tickets.
The Basic Needs program even covers services like legal advice clinics, ID clinics, commissioner of oaths, and income tax clinics. In September, 92 women came through for these services. A typical legal advice clinic sees four women each for half an hour.
In September, volunteers completed 511 referrals, or 25 every day on average.
In September, volunteers gave out 26 personal care items every day.
In September, 24 women received food from various programs every day. (This number does not include the women who have snacks and a hot beverage when they visit.)
Looking at last years’ numbers, we can guess what this winter will look like. Last December, we saw over 1,000 women and children access the toy room program in the first three days. Many of these women also accessed the Basic Needs program for necessities like shampoo, toothpaste, and non-perishables. We expect this December to be even busier.
Come stop by the Centre and chat with one of our Basic Needs Coordinators, Linda and Thunder, to find out more about the Basic Needs Program and how you can connect with us.