Who we are? The Canadian Center for Women’s Education and Development is committed to promoting and strengthening the emotional well being of women, youth and children from an early age to twelve years of age  through a variety of prevention, and  intervention services.  The agency is a multi-service organization which provides not only traditional services to immigrant women and children but a broad range of integrated programs that support the healthy development of women and children in Scarborough. Our primary programs are as follows. A program for women who are new to Canada. This provides information on the different programs and services linguistically that are available in their community.  Also assist them to get connect with the different social assistance, housing, legal aid, food bank and clothing depot to get them started with their families. Working with single mothers who are dropping-out of school. Provides mentoring and hands-on experience to gain meaningful job shadowing in order re enter the labour market. Working with young women who are new to Canada and are living in abusive relationship.  Provides life skills training, leadership development and assist them to understand their present situation and move them to new grounds. Working with single mothers who are re-offending.  Provides mentoring and help them to re-enter the work force and finish their education goals. Also provide work placement with other community agencies so that they can gain hands-on experience and be able to fund jobs. Provide assistance to women by accompanying them to divorce and child custody hearing, immigration appeals, food banks, social assistance office, eviction hearing, domestic violence counseling, assistance filling out forms, and make appropriate referrals. An example of some of our work we accomplished assisting women. In 2001 – Governor General Caring Award 1999 – Received the Mayor Community Safety Ward The Centre helped a single woman of 2, to own her own home through Habitat For Humanity. Over a decade this woman encountered domestic violence and was using the food bank, on social assistance, running back ad forth to court on domestic violence, separation ad divorce. She was helped by Bibi Zaman personally and was able to gain custody of her two (2) children and live in her own home. The Centre ran a program – “Exit Abuse”. This program provides support for women who have experienced any form of abuse at any point in their lives.  This group provides women with a safe and supportive environment to discuss issues related to abuse.  The group will provide women with the opportunity to discuss the impacts and efforts of abuse and explore different coping skills. A total of 60 women enrolled in the program The Centre through our Ontario Works Program was able to recruit women with formal degrees from their country in areas of Law, and Social Work to accompanied women to court with child custody hearings, domestic violence hearing, separation and divorce. We have during this time helped over 520 women. We provided counselling to women who were separated to gain meaningful volunteer work  in Administrative Assistance, In-Taker Worker, Family Counsellors, Housing Workers, and Court Interpreters. During this time, we serve over 380 women. The Canadian Centre For Women’s Education and Development establish a breast feeding program for low-income  marginalized and disadvantaged women to promote breast-feeding and growth monitoring towards fostering healthy childhood and motherhood. This project yield results which helped newcomer women from the Indo-Caribbean communities in Scarborough to make choices that helped them to bond better with their young one. The Centre launch a program for women who were living with domestic violence and were diabetics. The primary objective of this project is to reduce the high incidence and prevalence of diabetes and provide on-going support to them.  the target groups were  South Asian and Middle Eastern women  living in Scarborough.. Specifically, those who were abused, and have no support and have no place to get for assistance regarding their diabetes. CCWED conduct a diabetes screening outreach program for the women and identify those who are at risk for diabetes or have pre-existing diabetes but not receiving care due to significant social, language, and cultural barriers that make them unable to access the available health care services. Facilitate access of the most vulnerable groups in the immigrant community to existing diabetes health care delivery services; Develop language-appropriate information resources that help them recognize the symptoms of diabetes and know what other people do to deter the onset of diabetes and/or keep it under control; Develop a community-based and culturally – competent education program to create a greater awareness about diabetes, the risk factors involved, and the motivation to follow diabetes self management interventions known to produce outcomes that allow people with diabetes live a healthy life. Build local capacity to sustain health-promoting interventions; and facilitate more effective interactions between people with diabetes and their health care providers. A total of 280 women were in involved in this program. CCWED  worked with new young parents who were single mothers to establish a support group and a buddy program.  There were 32 young parents who had no support and no one to provide any guidance, nor up-lift their spirits. They were all depressed, isolated and confused – had no experience as new mothers. Taking home a newborn baby can be a very stressful thing for new moms, as they learn how to breastfeed, soothe their crying newborn, all while running on little sleep and maintaining their prior responsibilities. And while husbands or partners (who were not there to lend any support) will generally be the primary source support, during this adjustment phase, new moms will need a lot of external assistance from family members and friends, as well as professionals. The new mothers were surprised to learn that so-called maternal instinct doesn’t teach you everything you need to know about caring for a newborn. That’s why, being around other moms (both first-time moms and more experienced ones) will be a great source of support for you – not only because they can provide you with helpful parenting tips, but more importantly, because they understand what you’re going through. Through Centre’s initiative, we were able to provide all of the above by bringing women who can teach the women about breast-feeding, etc so that they feel confident to continue with fear and obstruction. The Centre worked collaboratively with Scarborough General Hospital to launch an uninsured health clinic for homeless people, and especially the new immigrant and refugee communities in Scarborough. All new immigrants have to wait a period of 6  months before they can receive OHIP Card to access healthcare. Most of the immigrants remain very vulnerable: pregnant women were at risk, children’s lives were unprotected. The Centre worked with a panel of volunteer doctors from the Scarborough General Hospital to provide medical assistance free-of-cost to those who were in need. The Centre was instrumental in establishing this initiative and is one of the co-founders. This project started from the Church basement of the Church of The Epiphany. The clinic has grown over the years serving over 1800/2000 clients per year and now housed at the Scarborough Hospital General Division because of growing demands.. The Centre  developed a food bank in partnership with the Church of The Epiphany to feed the poor in the community after seeing the desperation of the women who come to the Centre for domestic violence and abuse. Our Centre was compelled to do something for the women….”it is too much to bear”. Over 1100 women per year used the food bank. The Centre  worked with new young parents who were single mothers to establish a support group and a buddy program.  There were 62 young parents who had no support and no one to provide any guidance, nor up-lift their spirits. They were all depressed, isolated and confused – had no experience as new mothers. Through Centre’s initiative we were able to provide all of the above by bringing women who can teach the women about breast-feeding, etc so that they feel included into motherhood with support, caring and unnecessary hostility.  The Centre ran a program and create a safe place for 85 young Indo-Caribbean immigrant women, ages 18-24 to meet and engage in small group discussions to address issues relevant to them. They initially present with domestic violence issues, running away from  home -- made worse by substance abuse as a means of coping  and easing pain. The young women fear that seeking help for substance abuse will cost them custody of their children, expose them to legal action, and further strain family connections. These women frequently describe losing the support and care of their families, and being subject to degrading judgments about their behaviour and character. This estrangement creates negative self-worth, further intensifying their substance abuse and shoplifting. It also affects their resiliency and ability to cope with life. Family connection and support is a critical aspect of resiliency, especially for young people in this culture. The Centre provided activities for the them which includes life skills building, group discussions, social bonding,  and building self-confidence to help the women gain a better understanding of themselves and their community, making them feel more connected and therefore less vulnerable to substance abuse. They learn how to adjust their behaviour and reconnect with their families and re-enter school to complete their education. financial management education supports for children coordinating public education involvement, including immigration, social service and health services Domestic violence and abuse language interpretation Immigration matters Child custody battles, and Court Accompanient