Patience, grace, forgiving yourself for mistakes, sharing in successes, knowing you can reach out for guidance when you need it, and laughing a little along the way.
These are all great qualities to have when you’re decorating cookies … and when you’re healing.
“Sometimes you’ve come from relationships that are hard or have been not so healthy. And so when you’re forming new relationships that are healthy, it really helps you build trust,” says Heather, who has been coming to Fort Garry Women’s Resource Centre for about four years.
“They’re helping you build a lot of skills that you’ve maybe lost because of things that have happened in your life.”
Fort Garry Women’s Resource Centre (FGWRC) has been a safe space for women, children, and gender-diverse people for the last 40 years. The tucked-away location on Waverley Street conceals the bold and essential work being done inside, and it’s celebrated by visitors and clients as a welcoming place to make healthier choices and positive life changes.
The centre offers free, long-term counselling to support women through challenges like intimate partner violence, childhood abuse, the impact of trauma, anxiety and depression, parenting, and poverty.
Last year, the centre held nearly 4,000 counselling sessions for adults and another 230 sessions for kids between 4 and 12 years old who have witnessed or experienced family violence.
“All of these people out there are not invisible strangers—they could be our mothers, children, aunts, grandmothers, sisters, neighbours, co-workers, and friends. Chances are you may personally know one of these individuals that accesses our programs and services,” says program coordinator Andrea Clearwater.
“While the circumstances vary, the underlying message people come to us with is the same: I need help.”
“Creating art can ease stress, build confidence, and help people understand their emotions in a gentle way … we see every day how this kind of creative support can make healing feel more possible.”
On this particular weekday afternoon, Fort Garry’s brightly-lit common room is filled with about a dozen women—each with little cookie canvasses in front of them, along with various squeeze bags of colour.
The group chats with each other and arranges their edible art pieces as coordinator Shileen leads a tutorial for designing and decorating small birds, teapots, houses … delicious reminders that life is sweet—even when times are tough.
“You can talk about what’s happened,” says Heather, as she lays down blue Royal icing on a sugar cookie bird, “but also talk about ways to build strengths—and not dwell on the difficulties.”
Art therapy is well known as a life-changing form of healthy connection and healing. It promotes expression, independence, self-esteem and self-awareness, and studies show significant positive outcomes, with participants reporting as much as a 78% improvement in their mental health, anxiety, and levels of stress.
“Art therapy is helpful for many of the women who come to our centre because it gives them a way to express their feelings without needing to find the perfect words,” says Shileen.
“Creating art can ease stress, build confidence, and help people understand their emotions in a gentle way. In group sessions, it also brings women together, helping them feel less alone and more supported. As a free women’s centre, we see every day how this kind of creative support can make healing feel more possible.”
As Bonny fills in her sugar cookie shape, she shares she’s been coming to FGWRC for years for counselling programs, group outings, drop-in groups, and more—including art therapy workshops like this one.
She says she keeps returning to the space for the friendships she’d made, the support she’s received, and the strength she’s seen blossom in herself.
“You kind of start with the one or two things that brought you here. But then your life keeps happening, and so the skills that you learn help you deal with all those things that keep happening,” says Bonny.
“You get the help when you need it and then after a while, you find a happier place—and you help others.”
Because of your generosity, Fort Garry Women’s Resource Centre and 23 other family resource centres supported by United Way Winnipeg donors can continue this essential, meaningful, life-changing work in their neighbourhoods—and throughout our city.
Last year, more than 50,000 people accessed the services and programs of our family resources centres over 400,000 times.
“Without core funding from United Way Winnipeg, our centre would have fewer counsellors, fewer programs, and be unable to reach as many people as we do today,” Clearwater says.
“No matter how big or small the amount may be, donors change lives by helping agencies continue to serve as safe spaces for those in need.
“I truly believe that together, we can help Winnipeg thrive.”
