SAWIS is a community-based organization  created by a group of immigrant women living in the Oakridge-Crescent Town neighbourhood and was first incorporated in 2008. The motto above was adopted by the SAWIS women at their founding meeting. It reflects SAWIS’s holistic understanding of our community’s problems and the lived experience of people in our community. It expresses that gender inequality is a block to the economic and civic progress of our community and that the economic insecurity and civic exclusion of our community’s people compounds gender inequality for our women and girls. This motto sets out our organization’s mission and vision which guides our program activities.

At the 2020 Annual General Meeting on September 30, SAWIS’s mission and visions were updated by the directives of the community, staff, volunteers, and our Board. Our mission and vision is as follows:

Mission and Vision Statement

To providing marginalized newcomer women with the services and supports they require to participate fully and equally in Canadian economic, civic and social life.
To achieve this, the knowledge, skills and leadership capacities of the community’s newcomer women are developed, activated and deployed at all levels of the organization’s governance and in all of its activities.

(Click here to see minutes from the 2020 AGM reflecting these changes)