2024 - 2025 Summary CFUW Social Justice Committee (SJC) Activities
The Social Justice Committee (SJC) had another very productive year in 2024-2025; you will find below a summary of the most significant initiatives and shorter-term endeavours. Please note that this is not an exhaustive list.
International Seniors Day:
Members of the SJC participated in the Seniors Active Living Fair hosted by PEP Seniors Therapeutic Centre. This helped increase CFUW Perth and District visibility by bridging opportunities with local organizations. The event was quite successful as a whole and for CFUW, as we were able to make new connections and possibly recruit new members :).
​
With respect to Poverty:
Poverty still remains one of the most important priorities for the SJC who decided to dedicate our efforts to the Ontario Council Warming Centres resolution and doing our November 2025 Public Presentation on food insecurity.
The committee has been keeping abreast of CHIP which is a coalition of local citizens passionate about addressing Perth’s housing crisis and we are also monitoring developments within the Lanark Basic Income organization.
Advocacy 101 Presentation to our Club members:
In November, the SJC along with other members of our club presented an Introduction to CFUW Advocacy to both new and existing members. Advocacy is one of the founding pillars of CFUW. This presentation described CFUW advocacy at the local, provincial, national and international levels. Reference the presentation here.
​
United Nations:
CFUW’s delegation to the 69th annual United Nations Council on the Status of Women (UNCSW) in New York.
A member of the SJC, Sandra Shaw, who is also the President of the Ontario Council, attended the UNCSW. Sandra did a wonderful presentation to the SJC about her participation at the UNCSW, representing CFUW which has a special consultative status. The overall feeling at the UNCSW presentations that she attended, was that we need to amplify our voices with other like-minded groups because there is a movement around the world to reverse course on the progress that has been made in the last 100 or so years with regard to human rights and more specifically equality for women.
Cheques and donations to local agencies:
Cheques approved by members at large were distributed to YAK (Youth Afterschool Center) and Cornerstone Landing (Social Service Center for Youth). Additionally, the SJC collected goods at the Christmas Dinner from our club members and distributed the goods to those two organizations.
Participation in our Club Initiatives and other organizations’ initiatives:
The SJC attended the International Women’s Day Breakfast at Perth Civitan. Co-sponsored by Interval House and CFUW Perth and District.
The SJC took part in the very important “Resolutions” meeting, where our club provides feedback on the Resolutions that have been proposed in the current year.
The SJC helped raise funds and assisted in the Coldest Night of the Year for Cornerstone Landing.
The SJC joined the December 6th Vigil in acknowledgement of the National Day of Remembrance & Action on Violence Against Women organized by Interval House.
The SJC supported the Orange Shirt Day hosted by Lanark County Neighbours for Truth and Reconciliation. The public was sitting in a large circle around the smaller circle of indigenous peoples. The event was very touching and enlightening.
The SJC on behalf of the club, launched our Smitten with Mittens campaign.
2023-2024 Activities
Functionality You Will Love
01
Released the Poverty & Homelessness Report
A year of research by the Social Justice Committee culminated in a public presentation of the Poverty Report, findings covering average incomes, food security, food bank use and affordable housing in Lanark County that was surprising for many.
02
Advocacy Education
Prepared and presented Advocacy 101 to our CFUW Perth and District members. The roles of each level of advocacy (Local, Provincial, National and International) by our different councils were explained and clarified in order to understand the relationship between all of them and how each one can help us and how we can help them in return.
03
Club-wide activities
Social Justice Committee members launched the Toques are Smitten with Mittens Campaign, actively supported the club's Coldest Night of the Year 2024 walk, attended the Ècole Polytechnique community vigil and held a club-wide International Women's Day coffee.
The Social Justice Committee is a great committee focused on the betterment of society. If this is where you would like to add your talents and passion, please consider joining our committee; new members are always welcome!
Social Justice Activities, 2022-2023
The Social Justice Committee has been busy working on our priorities.
1 / Long Term Care
A synopsis of the National Long Term Care study group prepared by Isobel Boyle can be found here.
2 / Opioid Health Emergency:
A synopsis of the Ontario Curriculum with regards to substance use, addictions and related behaviours from grade 1 to 12 prepared by Bonnie Allen can be found here.
3 / Affordable Housing, Homelessness, Basic Income, Food Insecurities
The Social Justice Committee presented Caring Communities, a group of concerned citizens who have developed a project to create affordable housing in Perth Ontario. This presentation will describe their journey of hearing the need for housing and deciding to develop a model to actually create housing in Perth. It has not been an easy journey, with many hurdles and learning curves as they have honed their model. They will describe the steps they have taken, and where they are now with the project
4 / Community Involvement
Toques are Smitten with Mittens, a winter campaign where members provide warm hats and mittens to those who need them.
​
Community Donations, each year the club decides on which non-profit organizations to support with funds raised: The Table, YAK Youth Services, Interval House each received $500.
​
December 6th Vigil, National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women: Members attended the vigil organized by Interval House to remember and honour the 14 young women murdered at Ecole Polytechnica in Montreal in 1989.
All Candidates Meetings
Members of the Social Justice Committee collaborated with local agencies to hold 2 All Candidates Meetings: The Community Table and the Perth Chamber of Commerce for the Perth meeting, and some Tay Valley citizens for the Tay Valley Township meeting. This helped increase CFUW Perth and District visibility by bridging opportunities with local organizations.
​
The Tay Valley All Candidates meeting took place at Glen Tay School on September 28, was well attended and received many kudos for such a well-run event. Recording available here until Oct 24.
The Perth meeting took place on October 3rd at the Legion. It was a resounding success: it was well attended (at least 150 people) and it was favorably commented on by Lake 88’s Brian Turner as being one of the “BEST” All Candidates meeting he has ever attended: “very well organized and well run”. Listen to Brian Turner here. Recording of the All Candidates Meeting in Perth available here until voting day, October 24th.
​
Social Justice Activities, 2021-22
Ontario's Opioid Public Health Emergency
​
In March, 2022, the Social Justice Committee sponsored a panel discussion on Ontario's Opioid Public Health Emergency to raise awareness of addictions to both prescription and illicit drugs, and to the stigma of addiction, which results in a reluctance to seek help. We know that this is a very complex and difficult topic, but we are hoping that through awareness, this might help save someone’s life. The committee prepared these fact sheets outlining how you can help.
​
​
Following the panel discussion, an online training session was provided by Perth Pharmacist Mark Barnes on June 6 to teach how to administer Naloxone. Find a link to the very useful video here
​
Out of the Cold, 2022
​
In February 2022, our club hosted the Perth Coldest Night of the Year walk to raise funds for Cornerstone Landing to use in their programs for people who are homeless. It was a huge success with support from members walking, volunteering, and donating. Our team raised $5,705 and $20,605 in total was raised by the 15 Lanark County teams. This was the highest amount raised since Cornerstone Landing began participating in the event five years ago.
