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City of Vancouver
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MOTION ON NOTICE
1. Provincial Cuts to Women's Centres
MOVER: Councillor Woodsworth
SECONDER: Councillor
WHEREAS women's centres in British Columbia are critical to the health, safety and well-being of women; and
WHEREAS women's centres provide a wide range of direct services to women including information and referrals, support groups, crisis intervention, stopping the violence counselling, specialized victim's assistance, job entry programs, life skills workshop, legal aid workshops, volunteer training, child care services, housing registries, food programs, clothing exchanges, networking, advocacy and community outreach; and
WHEREAS over 300,000 women and girls receive direct services from women's centres every year; and
WHEREAS the majority of these women are in poverty and/or victims of violence; and
WHEREAS women's centres are their lifeline in the community; and
WHEREAS the provincial government is eliminating all core funding for women's centres as of March 31, 2004; and
WHEREAS five women's centres in Vancouver - Vancouver Status of Women, Downtown Eastside Women's Centre, Phillipine Women's Centre, South Asian Women's Centre, Vancouver Women's Health Collective, are among the 37 B.C. women's centres that will lose their core funding on March 31 and may be forced to close; and
WHEREAS the closure of these women's centres, on top of the massive provincial cuts to other services to women, will have a devastating impact on women in our community; and
WHEREAS it costs less than a dollar a day for every woman in B.C. to fund women's centres which is a small price to pay to ensure the safety and welfare of women;
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THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT Vancouver City Council urge the provincial government to rescind plans to cut core funding for women's centres on March 31, 2004; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT Council urge the provincial government to continue to provide core funding for all 37 women's centres in B.C.
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