As one of Toronto’s oldest VAW (Violence Against Women) shelters, North York Women’s Shelter (NYWS) has been serving survivors across the GTA for over 38 years. All our programs and services operate from trauma-informed principles to support women, trans, non-binary folks, and their children to build lives free of violence. We are committed to learning, evolving, and adapting to evidence-based and holistic research to address gender-based violence on both the frontlines and a systemic level.

In March of 2020, we opened our doors to a brand-new,17-bedroom, fully accessible emergency shelter and anti-violence building: the Anne Marie D’Amico Community Collective. Every aspect of this shelter was built and conceptualized in discussion with survivors who helped us create a facility that was truly designed for survivors, by survivors. In this space, we provide judgement-free safe shelter, advocacy, and a range of individualized, survivor-centered, programs and services.