Message from Medora Uppal, CEO, YWCA Hamilton
On behalf of all of us at YWCA Hamilton, I’d like to wish you all a happy International Women’s Day – an annual advocacy movement coming up on March 8.
Every year, YWCA Hamilton hosts our Women of Distinction Awards to align with International Women’s Day in order to highlight the remarkable achievements of women and girls in our community. This year, we are celebrating 65 incredible nominees who have been highlighted for their hard work, dedication, and passion.
This year’s nominees are, as always, a dynamic and diverse group of individuals. They are educators, health care workers, activists, philanthropists, athletes, researchers, and more. And, while they all come from different backgrounds, experiences, and insights, they are bound by their commitment to improving our Hamilton and Halton communities.
As we celebrate this year’s awards, I will be keeping this year’s International Women’s Day theme, #EmbraceEquity, top of mind. As pointed out at internationalwomensday.com, while similar, equality and equity are actually two distinct concepts.
While equality insists on each individual or group of people being given the same resources or opportunities, equity takes into account the diverse lived experiences of individuals and communities, and responding accordingly to these needs.
We see this in action every day at YWCA Hamilton. For example, we know that women in need of housing require targeted, gender-specific housing, including wraparound supports, in order to truly thrive. That’s exactly what we’ve accomplished at our new Putman Family YWCA – our brand-new, state-of-the art affordable housing building on Ottawa Street. As you will read in these pages, we are excited to share that through our #WOMENBUILDHAMILTON fundraising campaign, we have met our $5 million goal to cover the costs on this ground-breaking project.
At YWCA Hamilton, equity is at the heart of everything we do. To us, embracing equity means supporting those who need our help the most. It means meeting the people we serve where they’re at, and offering whatever support we can – whether that’s housing, employment programs, connections, child care, or a safe place that’s free from violence.
As we celebrate International Women’s Day and honour the remarkable nominees for this year’s Women of Distinction Awards, we hope that you too will consider what gender equity truly means to you – and then, take action. That can mean challenging gender stereotypes, calling out discrimination, drawing attention to bias, advocating for more inclusive spaces – and, celebrating the remarkable achievements of women and girls.
We hope that you’ll join us in our commitment to #EmbraceEquity.
Sincerely, Medora Uppal YWCA Hamilton CEO