South Asian Women s Centre

1. South Asian Women’s Centre The South Asian Women’s Centre is a non-profit social service organization located in Toronto. Founded in 1982, and incorporated in 1985, our name explains our identity as an organization which provides support for South Asian women seeking help. The organization’s main purpose is to raise awareness among south Asian women, and to empower them by assisting in the their social, economic and cultural development and potential.

2. South Asian Population A new statistics Canada study projects that by 2017 people of South Asian Origin will cement their status as the Toronto region’s most populous visible-minority group, more than 1 million will be south Asian which is up from 488,000 in 2001.

3.  OUR MISSION The purpose of the South Asian Women’s Centre is all encompassing and ambitious. Our primary focus is to increase women’s awareness of themselves, and to assist south Asian women develop their full potential by increasing their economic, social, cultural and political standing in society.

4. OUR OBJECTIVES Nurturing the economic independence and self-esteem of women. Breaking the isolation and alienation of women by providing social and support activities. Promoting access to full participation in society by addressing barriers to women’s equality such as underemployment, unemployment, violence prevention, language and training opportunities, poverty, access to housing and other issues faced by women. Empowering women and the larger community through information dissemination and educational activities.

5. OUR VALUES The Centre takes a holistic approach to the services we provide. Our goal is to enable and empower women in developing skills to participate more fully in Canadian society. The Centre provides services within an anti-discriminatory, anti-oppressive framework. We represent the diversity of South Asian culture and serve our unique client and member needs accordingly. We work towards the empowerment of women and the overall development of the community

6. Programs South Asian Women’s Centre provides programs that focus on the empowerment of women by promoting for the equality of women socially, economically, culturally and politically. Settlement program and Services Older Women’s Group Health Promotion Employment Counseling and Job Search homework club Youth Group Citizenship classes Volunteer Recruitment Training and Research. Violence Against Women Women’s wellness groups Life Skills Support Group

7. Services Our core settlement services assist immigrant and refugee women to settle into a new country and environment through a process that respects their cultural beliefs and values. Interpretation and translation Individual support counseling Information and referral (Immigration, social assistance, housing etc…) Crisis intervention referral and support Client support Legal Support Advocacy and Violence prevention education Citizenship classes, Homework club We also conduct weekly self-help support groups like wellness groups for specific groups of women. We also provide workshops and information sessions on a variety of settlement and other issues of interest to women.

8. Languages Served Tamil Sinhalese Punjabi Hindi Urdu Bengali Gujarati Tibetan English As well as when possible other South Asian languages and dialects based on client needs.

9. Partnerships We have seen an increase in the number of non-South Asian women and men accessing our services primarily because of the partnerships we have developed with organizations such as… East Scarborough Storefront and Malvern Family Resource Centre. Skills for Change The Centre hopes to expand its activities and reach a larger number of women by strengthening existing relationships and building new partnerships. The Food Sharing Program started in collaboration with Daily Bread Food bank continues to provide low-income women with nutritious food. It also gives our volunteers an opportunity to plan and run the program. The Centre has been an active member of the Tamil Service Providers Coalition as well as the Tamil Reference Group of the Children’s Aid Society, Scarborough Branch.

10. Violence Prevention Programs for Young Women South Asian Women’s Centre recognizes that young women between the ages of 14-20 of South Asian origin, and residing in the GTA specifically in the Toronto west area are at risk for abuse and violence. South Asian Girl is a group of young women ranging from high school teen to young women who have struggled with violence and abuse, are playing a mentoring role on these issues. With support from City of Toronto and leadership from the Youth Steering Committee South Asian Girls produced a video “Bollywood in my Backyard” highlighting barriers and challenges faced by newcomer young women as they enter high school. This was showcased at the Masala, Mehndi, Masti festival in August 2003. In partnership with CASSA and Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention (ASAAP) we now have a segment every year at the Festival, this years is titled ‘Chillin’ in your Brown skin’ This year, we received a small grant from the City of Toronto to produce a handbook to help service providers understand the issues of violence facing young South Asian women.

11. Health & Wellness Groups These groups provide women an opportunity to meet, share, learn and discuss diverse issues like health, legal, economic, cultural and social issues. These group activities are accessible to women speaking Hindi, Urdu Tamil and Punjabi

12. Seniors group... A multilingual group for isolated older women (60+), it provides a platform to share information, exchange cultural values and engage in self-development

13. Life Skills Support Group Aims at orienting newcomer women to Canada. It is designed to empower and build the confidence, self-help and coping skills of each participant.

14. Early Literacy & Homework Club Children ages 3-8 years are encouraged to develop their literacy and numeric skills. The after school-tutoring program is for children ages 9-14. Tutors assist the children to complete class work and assignments.

15. Employment Counseling…

16. Mental Health Culturally appropriate counseling, information and referral services for people dealing with issues related to clinical depression, schizophrenia, anxiety disorder, depression, isolation, persistent sadness, loneliness and settlement stress.

17. Legal Clinic and Legal Aid Advice… Women can either schedule an appointment to meet with a Lawyer who provides legal support, or sign up for a workshop informing them of their rights. Some issues include immigration and the refugee Act, Family violence, Employment equity and human rights.

18. Peer mentorship Project… Through the peer mentorship project SAWC is in the process of recruiting volunteers from the community to provide mentorship for women in abusive and violent relationships, and in need of support. We hope that this will provide women in such situations access, information and support in non-formal settings.

19. Preventing Children Abuse through Raising Sexually healthy Children Project...... “Preventing Children Abuse by Raising Sexually healthy Children” is a project sponsored by The Asian Community AIDS Services (AIDS) for the Tamil group. Our goal is to create a safe environment for parents to share new ideas and experiences, and to promote the importance of family sex education, children’s sexual development, sexual health education, and at the same time discover ways to prevent sexual abuse.

20. OUR VOLUNTEERS… Our volunteers are represent the diversity of the South Asian community in Toronto. They are an invaluable part of our Centre and we thank them for their dedicated and selfless work!

21. OUR SINCERE THANKS To our Funders for their valued support: Citizenship and Immigration Canada City of Toronto Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration, Ontario Ministry of Citizenship, Culture and Recreation United Way Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation Canadian Mental Health Association Children’s Aid Foundation

22. Your Involvement… Support the work of the Centre by Become a member Participate in programs and activities Volunteer your time to plan or run programs Be a Board or committee member Support our fundraising efforts Help out in any way you can In sharing skills, expertise and interests we learn from each other and become stronger.

23. Our Staff Kripa Sekhar, Executive Director ksekhar@sawc.org ext. 222 Kalpana Regmi, Financial Officer kregmi@sawc.org ext. 227 Japneet Kaur , Legal Education Coordinator jkaur@sawc.org ext. 229 Jayanthie Reynold, Settlement Coordinator (Tamil, Sinhalese) jreynold@sawc.org ext. 229 Mariya Wijayasunder, Tamil Support Worker/Settlement Worker (Tamil)mwijayasunder@sawc.org ext. 232 Supreeti Singh, Settlement Counselor (Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu) ssingh@sawc.org ext. 233 Subuhi Jaffrey, Employment Counselor/Volunteer Coordinator/ Settlement Counselor (Urdu, Arabic, Farsi, Gujarati) sjaffrey@sawc.org ext. 228 Sabitha Saha, Settlement Counselor (Bengali) ssaha@sawc.org ext. 227 Sherab Aathytsang, Settlement Counselor / Youth Coordinator (Tibetan, English) saathytsang@sawc.org ext. 234 Anuradha Sinha, Seniors Project Coordinator/ Settlement Counsellor (Bengali) asinha@sawc.org ext. 230 Thanusha Rajeswaran, Project Manager trajeswaran@sawc.org ext. 225  Vino Shanmuganathan, Outreach Coordinator/Worker (Tamil, French) vshan@sawc.org ext. 224 Dina Sousa, Office Administrator (Portuguese) dsousa@sawc.org ext. 221

24. Please Visit Us South Asian Women’s Centre 800 Lansdowne Ave Toronto ON M6H 4K3 Ph: (416) 537-2276 Fax: (416) 537-9472 Website:www.southasianwomenscentre.ca