Workshops at the Women’s Centre have always been an important way for women to connect with their community – we have been running workshops since we opened our doors in 1997!
While the content changes often, the goals of the program remain the same. Our workshops promote lifelong learning and social inclusion, and are a place where women volunteer their time, share their skills, and learn from one another. In 2018, we held over 340 workshops, weekly groups, volunteer trainings, and issues discussions!
2018 was a year of growth and creativity for our program. We continued to hold weekly Yoga and Zumba classes, and had a few special active workshops like Capoeira! Creative Circle, a group that meets once a week to socialize while working on creative projects like colouring or knitting, continued to be very popular over the past 12 months. Practice English classes were also well-attended, and we will continue to offer them three times per week in 2019!
2018 was also filled with capacity-building opportunities; we held over 30 volunteer training sessions related to women’s issues and our Social and Environmental Issues Discussions were attended by 408 women! We launched Women Lead YYC, a leadership program for women, where alumni later ran workshops of their own, including Women Should Know Each Other and Employment 101.
Coming Up in the New Year
Our community of women are the heart and soul of our workshops program! The decision to run or grow workshops comes from community feedback, and we will keep listening to members of our community when they tell us what they want to do and what they want to learn about!
We will be hosting more opportunities for women to connect with one another, including events like Women Should Know Each Other and Open Mic Night.
This year we’ll also be introducing Women Power – a monthly community-led group with a focus on building confidence, community and connection.
At our inaugural Woman Power workshop on January 16, we will share a potluck meal and get to know each other. A woman from our community will lead a rock painting activity, and participants can provide feedback about what they would like to see take place in future months of Woman Power!
As always, all of our workshops are free and supplies are provided. On some evenings, free Child Minding services are available for children 19 months to 12 years of age.
If you want to stay up to date about the workshops and events, you can sign up for our Coming Up at the Women’s Centre Monthly E-Newsletter.