Advocacy and raising awareness

Going beyond our daily and individual actions to create a far-reaching and long-lasting social impact in order to reduce exclusion, inequality and violence against women and girls. That is why we have actively organized, participated in and been involved in many events and campaigns to raise awareness around, promote mobilization of and increase involvement in women’s issues.1

Affordable Housing

Pub woke

For the first time, one of our projects to fight gender-based stereotypes and sexism specifically targeted advertising creative teams. As part of the Pub woke program, a group of youth participated in workshops where they wrote articles to marketing professionals to make them aware of how advertising content contributes towards building an egalitarian society and of their social role as creators of this content. To supplement this project, we updated a guide on how to submit a complaint about sexist advertising.

To supplement this project, we updated a guide on how to submit a complaint about sexist advertising.

Pub Woke project teaser
 
Play Video
 
Fighting gender-based stereotypes in advertising
Geneviève Morin, journaliste
Play Video about Geneviève Morin, journaliste
English subtitles available 

Lending Our Voice

Too often, Indigenous women find themselves in situations of extreme vulnerability. In solidarity with them, during the 12 Days of Action to End Violence against Women campaign (from November 25 to December 6), we decided to take advantage of our visibility on social networks to raise awareness about Indigenous organizations and actions or initiatives their communities are implementing. We have also decided to do the same during Black History Month.

Violence Against Women

International Women’s Day or Groundhog Day?

Unfortunately, all too often, violence against women continues to make the headlines. This “Shadow Pandemic” 2 motivated the YWCA to – once again – remind people of the systemic nature of violence against women and had them wondering if March 8 was International Women’s Day or actually Groundhog Day…

Child Pornography

In continuity with our participation in the Consultation on Sexual Exploitation of Minors, we have also stated our position regarding the posting of videos featuring child pornography on the PornHub website. Our position is very clear, the company must go further to demonstrate its real intention to counter child pornography.  

Acting where it counts

The approximately 2,084 women, girls and boys who directly benefited from YWCA programs and services in 2020‑2021 were between the ages of 12 and 84 years old. Of these, the majority lives on Montreal Island, in areas having a high deprivation index, as illustrated in the map below. Approximately 55% of these women, girls and boys are of immigrant background.

Deprivation Index

  • Minimal presence
  • Low presence
  • Moderate presence
  • Significant presence
  • Moderate concentration
  • Significant concentration
  • Few or no families

Saint-Laurent

29%

Ahuntsic–Cartierville

4%

Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension

4%

Saint-Léonard

1%

Anjou

1%

Montréal-Nord

2%

Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles

1%

Côte-Saint-Luc

2%

Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce

7%

LaSalle

2%

Verdun

4%

Sud-Ouest

6%

Ville-Marie

10%

Plateau Mont-Royal

5%

Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie

5%

Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve

4%

Hampstead (city)

7%

Pierrefonds-Roxboro

1%

Lachine

1%

Outremont

1%

Mont-Royal (city)

1%

Map adapted from https://cgtsim.qc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/CARTE_2018FRW_DEFAVO.pdf

  • Saint-Laurent 29 %
  • Ville-Marie 10 %
  • Hampstead (city) 7 %
  • Côte-des-Neiges
    Notre-Dame-de-Grâce     7 %
  • Sud-Ouest 6 %
  • Plateau Mont-Royal 5 %
  • Rosemont
    La Petite-Patrie     5 %
  • Mercier
    Hochelaga-Maisonneuve     4 %
  • Villeray
    Saint-Michel
    Parc-Extension     4 %
  • Verdun 4 %
  • Ahuntsic
    Cartierville     4 %
  • Côte Saint-Luc 2 %
  • LaSalle 2 %
  • Montréal-Nord 2 %
  • Rivière-des-Prairies
    Pointe-aux-Trembles     1 %
  • Anjou 1 %
  • Saint-Léonard 1 %

Map adapted fromCarte de la défavorisation des familles avec enfants de moins de 18 ans of the Comité de gestion de la taxe scolaire de l’Île de Montréal

Deprivation Index

  • Minimal presence
  • Low presence
  • Moderate presence
  • Significant presence
  • Moderate concentration
  • Significant concentration
  • Few or no families

1 Our main initiatives and participation in events for the cause of women and girls are available in the detailed report of our activities (in French).

2 UN name for violence against women during the COVID pandemic.