In over a hundred countries around the world, women and girls come together to connect, learn, grow, and support each other in spaces designed for their communities, by their communities, courtesy of their YWCA. On April 24, YWCA Edmonton joins the global movement to celebrate World YWCA Day and our work to build, grow, and nurture safer spaces.
In working for gender equity, creating and nurturing safe spaces for women and girls is essential. For many women and girls, safe spaces offer a respite from communities that may not value their experiences, honour their pain, or uplift their voices. Safe spaces protect participants from harassment and abuse, allowing everyone to participate in the difficult and necessary conversations needed to create the world we want to live in. Formal safe spaces offered through programming bloom into more safe spaces as participants connect with each other and go on to build relationships that help them transform their lives and the lives of those around them.
Safe spaces are not born by accident. They are created with intention by community members and leaders responding to the needs of their communities. They are healing circles for survivors of racialized and gender-based violence, strategy sessions for activists and advocates building social change, support networks for new moms, and conversations over coffee and tea where laughter flows where judgment doesn’t, and they are so much more.
Every safe space has a story.
The safe spaces we curate and facilitate tell the story of women surviving and thriving after escaping domestic violence. They tell the story of girls coming together to build leadership skills that will transform them into changemakers and empower them to start making that change today. They tell the story of medically fragile babies sleeping through the night at home for the first time after being told they may never leave the Stollery. Every story woven together in our safe spaces becomes part of the tapestry of the YWCA movement worldwide, part of the global story of women working towards equity.
This April 24, we commit to continuing to foster and grow safe spaces in our organization and beyond and invite you to look at how you can build safe spaces in your life, even if just for yourself.
