We are starting our year filled with gratitude for the generosity of our donors and the Greater Victoria community: in December we asked for your support, and you really came through for us. As well as a wonderful response to our Winter Fund Drive, we also received donations and support in the form of gifts, gift cards and items for the Shelter, its residents and many of our clients and programs. These included home baked goodies and a turkey for the Shelter’s Holiday celebration meal; a donation of pillows and duvets; bags of toys and games; Christmas stockings filled with gifts; hygiene supplies, and very many teddy bears! Thank you to everyone who made a difference this year.

Thank you to the Viveka Foundation Fund through the Victoria Foundation for the generous support of the Violence is Preventable project and Family Law Advocacy project. 

We are so grateful to Dance Victoria and their donors for providing complimentary tickets through the Nutcracker Kids program, enabling over 100 VWTH clients, and their children, as well as staff, to attend a magical performance of The Nutcracker performed by the Royal Winnipeg Ballet with the Victoria Symphony. It was an experience that many will never forget, thank you. 

This year we filled all 297 Christmas Hamper requests from our clients, thanks to donors who signed up for our Christmas Hamper Program. Thank you for your caring generosity. These Gift Card Hampers allowed many women who are participating in our counselling programs, or staying at the Shelter or Transition Housing, to shop for their own Holiday celebrations. They bought groceries to make a special meal and gifts for their children. Your donations warmed many hearts over the Holidays.

We are happy to announce that the Victoria Goddess Run returns in 2023 and that VWTH is again one of three charities of choice. This year there is a new date and new location:

Now is the time to lace up your runners and train for the 5k or 10k lakeside trail routes. Join hundreds of women for this fun and inspiring event – register today

We have a NEW Charity Champion taking on the course and fundraising for VWTH this year. Deborah Rogers is our Communication Manager. She’s an experienced runner but has never participated in this event before.

Support Deborah’s VWTH fundraiser here.

Donor funded Expressive Arts at VWTH include Turning the Tide which runs in Oak Bay, and Healing Through the Arts in collaboration with the Arts Centre at Cedar Hill. The most recent session of Healing Through the Arts wrapped up just before Christmas. The 8-week program saw a group of VWTH clients from the 50+ program participate in self-reflective work exploring a range of colour and paint techniques, with a focus on discovering personal strengths.

Clients in these group sessions are supported by a VWTH counsellor, with an artist to facilitate the creative activities. Different artists lead each 8-week block of sessions allowing for a variety of styles and media to be explored. Find out more about the artist who led the most recent session, and her reflection on the process, on our website.

Drawing inspiration from nature, beautiful, colourful artwork created over the past weeks will be displayed at the Arts Centre located at Cedar Hill Recreation Centre.

Food Security Program

We are aware that spiraling food costs have forced many in our community, including women survivors, to cut down on the quantity and quality of their food. In 2021 VWTH launched the Food Security Project with the goal to support our clients to access safe, healthy and nutritious food while helping them find and maintain safety and stability. Thanks to generous local support from the Times Colonist Christmas Fund, the Second Harvest Emergency Food Security Fund and individual donors, the project has been a great success. Our Food Coordinator plans, organizes, tracks and assists with cooking healthy and nutritious meals for the Shelter and other VWTH clients, including 21 older women in our third stage transitional housing complex. Many of these women are on fixed incomes and/or disability, and all are survivors of intimate partner violence and abuse.

Did You Know? We have a Community Education Co-Ordinator who would love to connect with your community group, service club, business or institution. Learn about the services that VWTH provides and ways that you can get involved. Maya can arrange a presentation tailored specifically to your area of interest, and present to you in person, or via zoom. Connect with Maya

Are you interested in learning more about making a gift to charity through your Will? There is a free, no-obligation, 30-minute webinar available, hosted by Will Power, a national movement inspiring Canadians to think differently about their charitable giving. The session will include advice from a financial planner on how to set up your estate to support loved ones and charity, and save on taxes. Click to register for tax hacks to help you “give smarter”.

Interested in working at Victoria Women's Transition House? We are a vibrant, collaborative organization looking for exceptional people to help us grow as we work towards our mission of ending intimate partner violence. Please take a look at current employment opportunities and requirements on our website.

It is with much respect to the Lkwungen and SENĆOŦEN speaking peoples of the WSÁNEĆ, Esquimalt, and Songhees Nations, on whose traditional territories the Victoria Women’s Transition House Society is located, that we make this acknowledgment with the expressed shared hope to live in communities free of intimate partner violence.