I thought you might be interested in hearing some highlights of my last 20 years at the Centre.

I was originally attracted to social work because I was raised with a strong sense of social justice and equality. I was particularly concerned about women finding their place in the world, having the right and responsibility to shape their own destinies, and the future of our community.

My on the job training included work with women who were abused, and trying to move forward in their lives. After graduation, I spent several years working with young offenders and emotionally disturbed youth. It was valuable work, but I always felt that I wasn't quite in the right place.

A friend told me about Scarborough Women's Centre. I was attracted to the idea of "possibility" that the Centre provided - creating possibilities for women, for the community, and for me. So I accepted the position of Executive Director.

I remember that first day so well - March 6, 1986. There had just been an ice storm the night before, and I slid my way up the sidewalk from the Markham Road bus to get to the Cedarbrook Community Centre. At the time, we had two rooms in the basement. One room was a small lounge where women could talk and read, the other had a couple of desks. There was a support staff person, and usually an information volunteer staffing the phone.

When I met Sue for the first time that day, she rolled her eyes. Because she had to tell me that my very first act as ED of Scarborough Women's Centre would be to go to Scarborough Civic Centre and defend a grant application that I hadn't even read. So I made my way through the ice and snow to the Civic Centre, and told the review committee that I was going to be a "fount of information". Everyone laughed. I guess they felt sorry for me, because they approved the grant.

It was a lot easier to obtain funding in those days. Funders were looking for good ways to invest in the community, and they would call to see if we had anything we needed help with.

A couple of years later, in the late 1980s, the Scarborough Rapist reared his ugly head. This individual, who we now know to be Paul Bernardo, was following women off buses at night and attacking them.

I was deeply disturbed by the impact this had. Not only on the women who were personally attacked. But on women who no longer felt safe in their own community. Many quit their volunteer jobs or night school, cut themselves off from evening visits with friends, limited their children's participation in extra-curricular activities. He had effectively imprisoned women in their own homes. Not that all of them were safe at home either, of course.

Because of this, we decided to work with the TTC, City, Police, and individuals to find ways to improve safety for women on transit. As you know, the Request Stop program, and redesign of bus shelters, resulted, and have been copied all over the world.

This taught me about the value of consulting women about their concerns. It taught me about the power of working in partnership with other groups – in different spheres, different sectors, and organizations. It also taught me about the power of the media in bringing about social change, and the importance of working with media as an ally.

Following this process, which took about 4 years, I was personally nominated for the Governor General's Award in Commemoration of the Persons Case.

Although I was honoured by the nomination, I felt that there were so many other women doing good work to promote women’s equality, who should win the award. I felt that I had just been trying to do the right thing.

I would have been incredibly embarrassed to win, partly because I was still too young to be honoured for my "life’s work", and partly because the impact I was able to have on the community was made possible because of all the women who were working with me at the Centre. But it was interesting to realize that the work we were doing was actually an effort to take our woman-centred principles and act on them, changing the world, step by step.

I felt much better about accepting the Civic Recognition Certificate for my work with the City's Special Committee on Crime Prevention in 1997. And I felt great about accepting the Centre's Mayor's Community Safety Award in 2003, recognizing our work with abused women and their children.

Half way through my tenure at the Centre, the political and funding climate changed drastically, with the so-called "Common Sense Revolution", which effected all levels of government and severely hurt the not for profit sector. We saw so many cutbacks, layoffs, loss of good programs, loss of whole agencies. Services for marginalized people just didn’t make common sense, I guess.

I remember thinking that a firm foundation will always stand, even if the structure is damaged. You've heard about all of those buildings that burn down or blow away in a hurricane, but the cornerstones are still there, and they can be rebuilt.

And I thought, I bet we can tough this out. We're bruised, but we're not broken. We called a meeting of service users, volunteers, staff, and friends and said "What if Scarborough Women's Centre closed because of all these troubles?" The women made it very clear that closing the Centre was not an option, and that each wanted to help, according to her own gifts.

Over the years there have been lots of bake sales and thankfully we have become more sophisticated about how we raise funds. In the last few years, we've had the opportunity to learn how to fundraise, and do all kinds of infrastructure work to strengthen that solid foundation I was talking about earlier.

In consulting women we have slowly expand our programs significantly, add a mentoring and tutoring service, develop a support group for women parenting children with disabilities, make free counselling available to women, and offer the Economic Self Sufficiency Program for women who were at risk of returning to abuse. We also learned a great deal from working with women who were experiencing abuse, newcomers trying to become part of the community, women struggling to overcome barriers.

Thinking back over the 20 years, it has been deeply satisfying to have the opportunity to meet women who want to change their lives. To listen to their stories, and work together to design programs that will help them become they women they want to be. To see the women grow and bloom, to surprise themselves with how well they are doing, and then launch out into the community, maybe dropping back from time to time to say "Thanks for being there".

I have had the unique opportunity to be associated with many, many wonderful people.

• Colleagues from other agencies who are always willing to share their knowledge, and laugh about the challenges of being an ED.
• Funders who found ways to support programs they believed in.
• Students who were eager to learn, and staff who have worked hard to do their best.
• Committee and Board members who brought resources into the Centre, and shared their perspective from different sectors.
• Direct service volunteers who shared their time and caring with women in transition.
• Elected representatives who worked with me on issues, and sent clients, donors and volunteers our way.
• Media who made sure that our programs were promoted and that our voice was heard on various issues.
• Donors who made it possible to keep everything going.
• And my family and friends who have always encouraged me.

Thank you all for being here for me tonight. Together, we're here for Scarborough Women's Centre, and the women who are making a brighter future for themselves and their children. I am honoured to hold this position.