Earlier this year, the Nellie’s team rebooted one of our long-standing outreach programs: Toronto Women in Action (TWA). Centered around housing advocacy, the program focuses on teaching Toronto women how to be their own advocates on housing issues, such as affordable housing or rent-geared-to-income (RGI) housing.
Jen Garvan, our community program manager, explains that it’s not about being lobbyists going to Parliament Hill and demanding new bills — it’s about connecting with women in our community and teaching them how to advocate for themselves on housing issues. “It’s teaching them how they could go to City Hall and have a say in a budget vote, or how they could go to rallies to get their voices heard,” says Jen. “It’s about learning their rights and responsibilities as tenants, especially for marginalized women or newcomers.”
To run this year-long program, we’ve hired Michelle Pang and Maya Bras as our TWA housing advocacy coordinators. Michelle and Maya have been busy attending rallies and budget meetings at City Hall, as well as workshops and conferences around housing issues, and connecting with local community centres.
All of these outreach efforts are working towards creating a group of women who want to join our TWA group, who want to learn more about their own rights and help push this advocacy forward. Jen explains that we’re hoping to form a group of approximately 10 women living in the community who have struggled with housing or being unhoused. These women will commit to joining our workshops and learning the advocacy process with us, ultimately leading up to a Nellie’s-hosted housing symposium this fall.
Jen explains that what TWA does isn’t just part of our outreach work, it also perfectly complements the work Nellie’s does in empowerment training. “Knowledge is power, and if you don’t have that knowledge, you can’t fight for yourself,” explains Jen. “I think a lot of landlords can take advantage of their tenants, especially if they’re single mothers or if they’re recently unhoused. We want to help equip women and get our voice out there, saying that ‘we’re not going to just sit back and let them take advantage of women like us anymore.’”
Coming up in June, our TWA program is hosting two free webinars to help women and gender-diverse people understand their rights and access to affordable housing in Toronto. Click the links below to learn more about each webinar, and to register.