Award recipient helped create Ontario's first women's shelter

At a time when women fleeing abusive homes were still called "runaway wives," Darlene Lawson and her peers were embarking on what would be an endless journey towards rights and equality for women.


"It all started because I read this notice in a place that used to exist (The Women's Place) about starting a distress centre for women," said Lawson. A budding feminist, Lawson decided that she would join the group, which went on to found the first "women's only" shelter in Ontario, and one of the first in Canada, that would serve battered women fleeing violence in their homes. It was those early days that sparked a career in advocacy for women that earned Lawson a YWCA Woman of Distinction Award this year.

A part of the young group of women, they applied for, and received, a student grant to rent a house and furnished it with whatever hand-me-downs they could scrounge up. Interval House was born.

"It was difficult getting people's attention," said Lawson. "It was an interesting time politically."

Dismissed as "feminists" or as a "women's lib group" the women had to work hard to have violence against women recognized as a social issue



LINK: Inside Toronto
LINK: YWCA - Darlene Lawson