Enhancing Both Empathy and Equity

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Enbridge: Women's Centre of Calgary recruits over 500 volunteers with new EDI training program. The Women's Centre of Calgary, a not-for-profit organization, lost 69% of its volunteers during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. To address this, the organization revamped its volunteer training program with a focus on equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI). Enbridge provided a $10,000 grant to support the development of this training, which aims to help volunteers challenge unconscious bias and support marginalized groups in a trauma-informed way.

Women's Centre of Calgary recruits more than 500 volunteers with new EDI training program

NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / November 14, 2023 / Enbridge / Over the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Women's Centre of Calgary lost 69% of its volunteers. Many in this group needed to prioritize caregiving in their household, and the number of available volunteers dropped from 800 to 250.

The not-for-profit based in Calgary, AB relies on volunteers to support more than 7,000 women in need every year. From 9:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. every day, they serve as first point of contact, delivering frontline services in person and over the phone to connect women facing housing challenges and food insecurity with assistance and service providers, including counsellors.

At the same time, the number of women needing help was growing, explains Bo Masterson, WCC's executive director. And the issues they needed help with were becoming increasingly complex.

"Women were disproportionately affected (during the pandemic)," she says. "They experienced layering of issues - on top of social anxiety or mental health issues, we saw increased instances of domestic violence. We were also seeing increased diversity (among women needing our services)."

As WCC set out to rebuild its volunteer base, the team decided to revamp its volunteer training program.

"We realized our volunteer training just wasn't sufficient in preparing our volunteers for what women were presenting with," Masterson says.

"We wanted (our volunteers) to understand what unconscious bias looks like," she continues, noting approximately 80% of the 7,300 women WCC supported in 2021 belonged to one or more marginalized BIPOC (Black, Indigenous or People of Colour) groups.

"We wanted them to understand how to support people with certain lived experiences or backgrounds in a trauma-informed way," she adds.

Enbridge provided WCC with a Fueling Futures grant of $10,000 to work with curriculum-development specialists to design the training, which focuses on helping volunteers challenge their unconscious bias, learn about anti-racism, equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) and Truth and Reconciliation, and better serve equity-deserving groups (primarily Indigenous, Black, and racialized women).

Each of the three modules is two hours long and includes experiential learning to help volunteers practice de-escalating situations with role-play.

The training quickly achieved what Masterson hoped it would - it helped volunteers deliver more sensitive, trauma-informed care when supporting women of diverse backgrounds.

Within 10 months, WCC volunteer numbers were restored to 750-just shy of the centre's goal of 800.

Now, Masterson says, volunteers are reporting a more positive experience and say they're better equipped to support women with kindness, understanding, and empathy.

With the new training program, women are "better supported in our centre," Masterson says. "We're building skills our volunteers can take outside the centre, too, to see each other as human, not as their specific experience or their ethnicity or their race."

View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from Enbridge on 3blmedia.com.

Contact Info:
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Website: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/enbridge
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SOURCE: Enbridge

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FAQ

What caused the decrease in volunteers at the Women's Centre of Calgary during the pandemic?

The decrease in volunteers was due to many individuals needing to prioritize caregiving in their households.

How many volunteers did the Women's Centre of Calgary recruit with the new EDI training program?

The Women's Centre of Calgary recruited over 500 volunteers with the new EDI training program.

What support does the Women's Centre of Calgary provide to women in need?

The Women's Centre of Calgary provides frontline services in person and over the phone to connect women facing housing challenges and food insecurity with assistance and service providers, including counsellors.

What type of grant did Enbridge provide to the Women's Centre of Calgary?

Enbridge provided a Fueling Futures grant of $10,000 to support the development of the new volunteer training program.

What is the focus of the new volunteer training program at the Women's Centre of Calgary?

The new training program focuses on helping volunteers challenge their unconscious bias and support marginalized groups in a trauma-informed way.