Article by Sudbury.com

Sudbury Women’s Centre is marking its 40th anniversary this year by drawing attention to its history and attempting to raise some much-needed funds.

From Jan. 27 to March 8, the social service agency is running a “40 years, 40 Days, $40K” campaign.

It will be promoting campaign sponsors through its social media accounts and promoting a donation drive to reach a goal of $40,000 to help support the centre’s growth.

A commemorative book about the centre’s history entitled “40 Years and Growing Strong” will be available for sale as part of these fundraising efforts.

Sudbury Women’s Centre executive director Giulia Carpenter said that in 1981, a group of women came together to create the agency, which has a mandate of offering a safe place to support women in their journey in where they want to be.

At first they met in each other’s homes, but they eventually moved to a space on Beech Street. Sudbury Women’s Centre changed locations a few more times throughout the 1980s, before moving to its current location at 324-F Elm St. in 1996.

The Sudbury Women’s Centre is a non-profit, charitable organization dedicated to providing information, referral and support services to women who have been impacted by violence and/or difficult life circumstances.

The staff and volunteers at the SWC offer a safe space, inclusive and respecting of diversity, to support women in their journey.

“We’ve been around for 40 years,” said Carpenter. “We’ve been evolving and growing every single year. We’re here for our community, we’re an important organization, and we want to be able to help as many clients as we can.”

She said Sudbury Women’s Centre has traditionally offered services such as My Sister’s Closet, where clients can access free clothing, peer support, a sewing circle and its Sisters Offering Support (SOS) evening drop-in program.

Like almost every other aspect of society, Sudbury Women’s Centre has had to pivot its services during the pandemic.

During the provincial lockdown last spring, the centre was closed to in-person services, although programs were still provided virtually or over the phone.

Members of the centre’s sewing circle and community volunteers stepped up during the first wave of the pandemic, making more than 1,200 cloth masks for the community members from their homes.

“We physically opened the centre up again in July,” Carpenter said. “We had shields put up at the centre. We changed things up with that regard. Now it’s not drop-in, everything is by appointment.”

Sudbury Women’s Centre was also closed to in-person services during the most recent provincial lockdown, but is opening up again this week with the loosening of COVID-19 restrictions, although in-person services will be by appointment only.

My Sister’s Closet is now offering a free online clothing store. (You can check that out here). The centre has also been offering curbside pickup of clothing items if people are in need of something specific.

Peer support is available over the phone. Although home is the safest place for many during this pandemic, this is not the case for those experiencing domestic violence, so Sudbury Women’s Centre remains available for safety planning assistance.

Carpenter said Sudbury Women’s Centre is obviously not seeing as many women in-person as it did in the past, but it’s virtual and telephone contacts have increased dramatically.

In the past, the agency had an average of 150 to 250 women per week come into the centre (that’s about 50 per week during the pandemic, when it’s open for appointments).

However, Carpenter said Sudbury Women’s Centre is now taking an average of 250 phone calls or online messages.

If you’d like to help Sudbury Women’s Centre celebrate its 40th anniversary, you’re invited to keep an eye on the centre’s social media accounts, where campaign sponsors will be promoted, along with historical tidbits about the agency.

You can also purchase a copy of the anniversary commemorative book  “40 Years and Growing Strong” for $20.

“We wanted to have a tabletop little magazine type book that shows those pictures we have in photo albums, those news clippings and stories,” Carpenter said.

“In the middle of the book there’s actually a timeline. It goes into the years and days of things that we’ve done along the way or different women movements that impacted the way we’ve done things.”

If you’d like to purchase a copy of the book, contact the Sudbury Women’s Centre at 705-673-1916 to arrange for curbside pickup.

If you’d like to contribute to the agency’s donation drive, visit 40years.sudburywc.ca.