Our History

A Short History of the Women's Centre and our Accomplishments

The Women's Centre began in 1984 with a young mother's severe postpartum depression. Alone at home and faced with the challenge of caring for a newborn, she realized that her unhappiness grew from isolation. Knowing that there were other young mothers in the community facing the same challenge, she organized a place to simply gather and talk. A core group of women began to meet, to share stories and to offer each other support. Eventually, from their meetings, the vision of a community-based centre for women began to emerge.

At that time, the central focus of the Women's Centre was to enable women to meet and share ideas and stories; conduct discussion groups, and provide weekly programs and educational lectures. These activities were the mainstay of the Centre's early days. By 1986, the group had expanded enough to become incorporated as the Penticton & Area Women's Centre, with a volunteer board of directors and a newsletter for its members.

Over the past twenty years PAWC has continued to grow and evolve to meet changing needs within the community.  Staff members have written regular columns on women's issues for the local newspaper. They have developed and conducted annual events to celebrate the unsung accomplishments of women in history, to deplore issues of violence and to honour solidarity.

The Women's Centre also sponsors and organizes lectures, women's meeting groups, and educational workshops.

"Possibilities", a project designed specifically to help young women enter the workforce, enjoyed much success.

"Safe Harvest", a research and prevention project, was launched in 2000 to reduce the high rate of sexual harassment and assault of agricultural workers in the valley.  This project was so successful that it evolved into the Safe Harvest Coalition in 2004. 

Other projects have included the Date Rape Drug awareness campaign, and various poverty law and family law advocacy and workshops.

Staff, the Board of Directors and volunteers are dedicated to assessing and providing ongoing services to women in our community.

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