Our Mission

To provide research and public education regarding the environmental, social, mental, physical and health needs of women, families and society in general.

About NCWC EDUCATION FUND / LE FOND EDUCATION NCWC

The NCWC Education Fund often works with the National Council of Women of Canada whose members are composed of its many federates such as Nationally Organized Societies (NOSs), Provincial and Local Councils of Women and their federates, as well as Individual, Honorary and Life Members.

Housing is a Human Right will be our focus from 2023 - 2025. 

On Wednesday, November 20th, 2024, NCWC Education Fund held a webinar entitled Housing Our Most Vulnerable: One Size Does Not Fit All.  Panelists were:

• Chief Brendan Mitchell, regional Chief for Newfoundland with the Assembly of First Nations (AFN). Chief Mitchell is responsible for the AFN Housing, Homelessness and Infrastructure portfolio, which includes the Chiefs’ Committee on Housing and Infrastructure. We are painfully aware that First Nations people are disproportionately impacted by homelessness and housing insecurity. His mandate is to champion access to safe, secure, adequate, and affordable housing for First Nations peoples, no matter where they live.
• Tim Richter, President and CEO of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness (CAEF). Under his leadership, the CAEH has helped shape federal, provincial, and local homelessness action and policy. Tim is currently co-chair of the National Housing Council which is mandated to provide advice to the federal Minister of Housing on improving the National Housing Strategy and advancing the progressive realization of the right to housing.
• Donna Brooks, CEO of the Prince Albert YWCA oversees a continuum of support services for vulnerable people in the City of Prince Albert, which is the service centre for Northern Saskatchewan. Donna’s leadership has resulted in shelters, programming, and support for women, women with children, youth with cognitive disabilities who are aging out of government care, parents who have lost their children to the care of the government for services, those suffering with addictions, and newcomers to the city and/or Canada.
• The Moderator was Stefani Langenegger, host of the Morning Edition on CBC Saskatchewan. This important conversation was rich in proven ideas and novel concepts to meet the multifaceted challenges of homelessness.

In June 2024, the NCWC Education Fund held a webinar with guest speaker Ricardo Tranjan, a political economist and senior researcher with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA). His clarifying presentation, The Tenant Class, focused on the multifaceted issues facing our underhoused and unhoused population as our current housing system is based on structural inequality and economic exploitation.

In April 2024, the NCWC Education Fund held a webinar entitled Social Housing and Human Rights: Mobilizing for Change with guest speaker Kirsten Bernas. Kirsten is a coordinator of the National Social Housing and Human Rights Campaign, Director of policy advocacy at West Central Women’s Resource Centre in Winnipeg, and Chair of the Provincial Working Group “Manitoba’s Right to Housing Coalition.” Kirsten stated that we must press politicians to learn from past mistakes and poor results and focus on the necessity to embrace a comprehensive approach that tackles the housing crisis on multiple fronts.

At the NCWC mid-term virtual meeting on November 25, 2023, NCWC Education Fund’s guest speaker Kaite Burkholder Harris spoke to Ending Homelessness 101: How We Get There. Kaite is the Executive Director at the Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa. She shared the challenges and successes in preventing and ending youth homelessness during her time as the Project Manager for A Way Home Ottawa.

Listening to, learning from, and acting on the Recommendations of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Inquiry has been our Common Program for the past couple of years and continued until June 2023. Some of our speakers have been:

Qajaq Robinson, former Commissioner with the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, spoke to: "The Way Forward" at the NCWC Education Fund presentation on October 29, 2020, during the NCWC's 127th virtual AGM.

Mi'kmaw lawyer, professor, author, and social justice activist Dr. Pamela Palmater spoke at our virtual Education Fund luncheon on May 29, 2021, during NCWC's 2021 virtual AGM. 

On February 4, 2022, Senator David Arnot spoke to Reconciliation, Respect, and Rights - "We are all Treaty People" at a virtual event.

On June 3, 2023, Jennifer Moore Rattray, the recently appointed Ministry of Justice Special Representative spoke during NCWC's AGM. Her mandate is to provide advice and recommendations through engagement with survivors, families, partners and organizations. Jennifer is a member of the Pupeekisis First Nation in Saskatchewan and currently holds the title of Chief Operating Officer at the Southern Chief’s Organization; is the former chief Executive  Director of the National Inquiry into the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls; and a former Assistant Deputy Minister with the province of Alberta.

Young Women and Violence Prevention 

Securing Our Future - the Economics of Later Life - action plans/curricula developed to help young women plan for a healthy economic future.

Canada's Water - an exploration of threats to its security, such as water shortages, impacts of mega dams, drought, mining, and the a need for a National Water Strategy.

The Water/Energy Connections Project - a comprehensive program using public meetings, newsletters, website, and a cross-Canada survey on water/energy use; public opinion on government energy and water policies and programs to explore how to protect the Great Lakes, the dangers of nuclear, 'soft' water and energy paths, and climate change, and to develop NCWC policies. (Project funded by the Walter & Duncan Gordon Foundation.)

Women and Mental Health - a three-part comprehensive exploration of women's unique mental health experiences. We've worked on this issue in many ways - education, research, advocacy, and linking with other individuals, community agencies, and organizations. The Romanow Commission's Final Report on the Future of Health Care in Canada described mental health as the 'orphan child' of health care in Canada, and recommended that it be brought into the mainstream of public health. Advocacy objectives included, among others: the promotion of human rights of the persons with mental disorders and of their families, and monitoring the life conditions of people with mental illness and their families. Parity of care needs to be assured in all health schemes.