Thank you for helping women and children to live free from abuse, homelessness and poverty! 

Last year, The Redwood was home to 185 women and children, many of whom had to leave their possessions behind when they made the decision to flee.  Your gift will outfit new residents with urgently needed basics.

The Redwood emergency shelter is a first home to many newborns each year – sadly, intimate partner violence often escalates when a woman is pregnant.  Your gift will provide diapers in just the right size and if needed, formula to keep babies nourished.

Many women leaving the shelter will discover that rent consumes most of their income – even for those who move outside of the GTA, even for those who have jobs.  Your gift will lessen the burden women experience as they re-establish themselves in the community by providing them with a grocery store gift cards to “fill-the-fridge” for one week.

When children arrive at the shelter, The Redwood’s Child and Youth counsellors enroll them in local schools. Your gift will provide a mother with a Presto card loaded with a month’s worth of travel to get children to school safely.

For many children, a birthday in the shelter is their “best birthday ever”!  Your gift will provide a special gift for the birthday celebrant and cake for all residents to share!

The day that a woman and her children move out of the shelter and into their very own home is always filled with mixed emotions – excitement for the future but a little anxiety too, as the next phase of their journey begins! Your gift of a meal delivered to their new home will make the end of an exhausting “moving” day a little more relaxing.