By Nancy I’m an EFry volunteer and recently I’ve had the opportunity to support the Extreme Weather Response (EWR) overnight emergency heat shelter at the Maida Duncan Drop-in Centre in New Westminster. We have space for six women. Each night, four or five women have come in. They can have a shower, do laundry and… Read More

By Shawn Bayes, Executive Director, EFry There are few topics as contentious as the cost of housing in the Lower Mainland. As high home purchase prices keep more people competing for rental stock, rents are becoming unaffordable for many and demand for our shelter spaces is growing with no end in sight. At EFry, we… Read More

EFry operates approximately two dozen different programs and services, in addition to our advocacy work to pursue system-wide changes. Everything we do has the same ultimate goal: creating opportunities for women to improve their lives and those of their children. Creating Opportunity in Ways Big and Small When people can’t count on their basic human… Read More

As an organization dedicated to supporting marginalized women, it’s probably not surprising that pursuing equality is a key part of our mission. But what do we mean by ‘equality’? At first blush, it may seem we want women to have the exact same treatment and supports as men. However, that’s not strictly true. What we… Read More

EFry treats everyone with dignity. It sounds logical enough. For those of us who haven’t come from abusive backgrounds and aren’t struggling with addiction, living in poverty or incarcerated, we take dignity for granted. Of course people will treat us with respect. Of course we matter. Of course we are worthy of someone else’s time…. Read More

By Shawn Bayes, Executive Director As part of its vow to be “tough on crime,” the federal government is planning to table legislation to make the penalty for certain crimes incarceration for life without the possibility of parole. While it might sound logical at first blush, there are four big problems with this: It won’t… Read More

As you may know, EFry relies on donors and volunteers to make much of our work possible. Without the public’s generosity, we couldn’t operate our drop-in centres, provide our JustKids programs to help children with a parent in prison or operate our Small Frys Boutique, which gives women living in poverty a place to get… Read More

By Shawn Bayes, Executive Director It’s nearly Christmas and while we’re busy trying to meet our clients’ heightened needs at this time of year, I’m compelled to address an issue that’s far from merry: Correctional Service Canada’s refusal to curb its use of solitary confinement. A year after Ashley Smith’s suicide following 2,000 hours in… Read More

By Shawn Bayes, Executive Director One in five BC children live below the poverty line, according to First Call’s report issued this week. The impact of child poverty is more than having a family short on money, living in a less than desirable neighbourhood and wearing hand-me-downs. A Princeton Study found that what child poverty… Read More

Nine years ago, the Greater Vancouver Regional Steering Committee on Homelessness, of which EFry was and is a part, created the first-ever Homelessness Action Week. Its purpose was twofold: first, to raise public awareness of the realities of homelessness in our communities and second, to do something about it. Awareness is built through media coverage,… Read More