Each December, the Faculty of Health Sciences & Wellness typically donates non-perishable food, health & hygiene, and household items in support of Ernestine's Women's Shelter.

As campus access is still limited, we are supporting this important community partner through monetary donations again this year, and have set-up a Canada Helps page with a goal of raising $2,000.

We'd like to extend the invitation to the entire Humber College community. The holiday season can bring with it added stress and anxiety for survivors of gender-based violence, and your donations will help ensure that Ernestine's can continue to provide support to all the women and children in the shelter and out in the community. 

If you have the means, please take a moment to contribute what you can (tax receipts are provided). Every little helps!

Please visit our Canada Helps Page before January 1, 2022, to donate.

Thank you in advance!

Your friends in the Faculty of Health Sciences & Wellness.

What We Do

Ernestine’s Women’s Shelter is a community-based feminist organization run by women that provides support and shelter for women and children escaping abuse and violence. Ernestine’s is a 32-bed emergency shelter with 14 private bedrooms.

We provide a home for the women and their children – who stay with us from six months to over one year – until we find appropriate housing for them. During their stay, we provide them with all the necessities they might need (new bedding, clothes, school supplies, toiletries, baby supplies, prescriptions not covered by OHIP, loaded Presto cards, and anything else they might need). 

In the last year, Ernestine’s provided shelter and support to 52 adults and 33 children, who called Ernestine’s their home.

In addition to shelter clients, we support over 600 women and children from across the GTA through our Outreach Program. We provide counselling services and programs as well as access to the shelter’s on-site donation rooms and food bank to our Outreach clients. 

In 2020, Ernestine’s offered lifelines to 269 adults and 355 children in the community through our Outreach Programs. In the same year, 252 adults and 344 children were serviced as a result of the 735 times Ernestine’s food support services were accessed. This is a 70% increase in number of families who received food support. 

We provide a range of holistic services to our shelter and Outreach clients. Our services and programs include 24-hour crisis assistance, individual and group-based counselling support, Child & Youth programs, as well as legal, housing, and immigration support and advocacy. 

Since we opened our doors in 1983, we have supported over 15,000 women and children.