Given the number of people that Guelph-Wellington Women In Crisis deals with in a year, it’s hard to believe there was no such organization 35 years ago. The organization now sees about 1,500 women annually, with its crisis line handling 3,000 to 4,000 calls a year, says executive director Sly Castaldi. What would such people have done 35 years ago?
It just goes to show that we tend to take things for granted, and that Guelph-Wellington Women In Crisis is fulfilling a real need.
The current state of this organization also shows the difference a few people can make when they care enough to do something about a social issue. Eight women who got together in 1977 to start a rape crisis line at the University of Guelph quickly found they were getting lots of calls from women in abusive relationships. They saw the need to start a shelter, and they did something about that in 1978, using a basement apartment donated by a Toronto charitable organization and operating with a government grant.
In the early days, without an advertising budget, they had to put printed posters with phone number tear-off strips in bathroom stalls to let more women know about the crisis line.
These days, the organization runs a number of programs and is in more spacious quarters, providing a needed refuge for victims of bad relationships. “At Women In Crisis, you’re part of the solution. You get to meet with women who have decided that they want more and deserve better,” says longtime volunteer Linda Reith.
It’s an organization whose existence should be celebrated, and certainly not taken for granted.