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Women's History Month is here, and there are so many ways to celebrate! 🎉 Here are a few of our favourites:

💜 Give back. Volunteer or donate to local women's charities. It's as easy as starting a donation drive with friends and family. Here at Street Haven, we're always looking for shampoo, toothpaste, and menstrual products for the women in our programs.

🎬 Host a feminist movie night. Explore the National Film Board of Canada's collection of films celebrating women and girls and the trailblazers who shaped our country. Popcorn encouraged! 🍿 Check out their list here: https://www.nfb.ca/channels/celebrate-womens-history-month-canada/

📚 Start a book club. Focus on women authors and women's stories. It's a fun way to get together with friends and learn about women's history!

🛍️ Shop women-owned. From clothing to bookstores to coffee shops, explore all the great women-owned businesses Toronto has to offer.

🎶 Press play. Build a playlist of women musicians, from Canadian icons like Céline Dion and Shania Twain to your own personal favourites.

How are you celebrating this month? Tell us in the comments! 👇

#WomensHistoryMonth #StreetHaven #Toronto #SupportWomen

It all started with one phone call. 📞

We're thrilled to be partnering with the Verity Club of Toronto. What began as a single conversation has grown into something we're really excited about: a group of passionate, dedicated professional women who want to dive in, understand the complexities of homelessness and how it affects women, and learn what they can do, as a group and as individuals, to support Street Haven.

We love community support from women's organizations. Thank you, Verity, for your curiosity and your commitment. 💛

#StreetHaven #VerityClubToronto #CommunitySupport #WomenSupportingWomen #TorontoCharity

It's the first day of Women's History Month, and we're starting with the woman who started it all: our founder, Peggy Ann Walpole. 💜 We've been working on something special to honour her (that’s for another post!), but first, let's get to know Peggy a little better.

Peggy Ann was born and raised in Toronto and graduated from St. Michael's School of Nursing in 1955. While working in the emergency department at St. Michael's Hospital, she kept seeing women sent home with nowhere safe to go. So, in 1965, she decided to do something about it.

She opened Street Haven as a women's drop-in program in a beverage room at the Atalanta Hotel, offering food, clothing, a warm room and help without judgment. In its first four years, more than 600 women walked through the door.

In 1967, she opened a permanent emergency shelter for women at 87 Pembroke Street, one of the first of its kind in Canada! That house is still a Street Haven shelter today.

From there, Peggy Ann built a vision that was ahead of its time and has since been embraced across the country: support that brings together shelter, housing, addiction treatment, mental health care, skills training and supportive housing, all in one place.

Her work earned recognition at the municipal, provincial and national levels, including the Ontario Good Citizenship Medal (1974) and the Order of Canada (1980). When she passed away in 2006, the Toronto Star called her "Toronto's Mother Teresa."

We love being able to celebrate the important women who shaped Street Haven. Every Monday this month, we'll be sharing new postsI about the women behind Street Haven, community events and more. Stay tuned!

#WomensHistoryMonth #StreetHaven #PeggyAnnWalpole #Toronto #WomenSupportingWomen