YWCA St. John's Inc.

Published purpose

Through this 33-month systemic change project, YWCA St. John’s will scale both YWCA Canada’s Born to Be Bold and Synergy projects to advance women’s economic security and prosperity. It will scale to a provincial scope by working with communities to test and address a lack of intersectional childcare policies and spaces as a systemic barrier to women’s economic security, significantly impacting those marginalized by immigration, race, class, and disability. To do so, the project will increase diverse women’s leadership and participation in systems change by developing a Project Advisory Committee made up of women of diverse lived-experiences to shape community-informed policy recommendations to childcare expansion. It will strengthen new and existing partnerships to promote multi-sector collaboration to act on these community-informed approaches. The project will widely share community informed learnings to support the development and implementation of stronger intersectional policies related to childcare, leading to lasting systemic change for gender equity and economic security. With provincial and national partners, it will engage in bilateral knowledge sharing of community-informed approaches on a local and national scale. With the supplemental funds and extension provided in early 2026, the YWCA St. John’s will enhance partnerships and sector knowledge to inform gender responsive childcare policies through coordinated engagement with national YWCA partners, targeted outreach to early learning and childcare operators in Newfoundland and Labrador, and key informant interviews to gather sector insights. They will also lead knowledge sharing initiatives across private, municipal, and sector stakeholders to inform gender responsive childcare policies and workforce recommendations. Additionally, the YWCA St. John’s will develop and implement trauma-informed training and onsite childminding pilot to reduce barriers for women and gender-diverse folks,and create a business plan for sustainable uptake in businesses. Through this they will further advance Gender Equality.