Our History

In 1973, a group of women actively involved in the mental health field in Toronto, began meeting to discuss their concerns about the lack of resources for women who were looking for counselling. They found that many women were being given prescription drugs instead of therapy. From their discussions arose the concept of a women's assessment and referral service. 

Their vision was to offer a service to women that would screen mental healthcare providers, both individuals and agencies, to ensure that they provided good care to women. They also wanted women to have more information about mental health resources so that they could be educated consumers of the wide ranges of services available. A major priority was and remains to find adequate and appropriate resources for low income and other marginalized women.

In December 1975, a proposal for the service was granted funding by the Department of Health and Welfare Canada. The program began as a three year demonstration project and WCREC opened its doors to clients in February 1976. The staffing was structured as a collective.

During the first three years, the counselling referral program was established. It runs today pretty much the same as it began over 30 years ago. The service provided to callers and service users centered on a few key concepts. Callers and service users were assumed to be the best judge of the kind of help they needed and were given as much information as possible about the resources to which they were being referred. The therapy process was demystified and callers and service users were encouraged to exercise their rights as consumers by being given the names of two or three therapists and encouraged to 'shop' for the right therapist.

From 1979-83 decreased funding dictated a reduction in service. A small staff group and a loyal contingent of volunteers and students kept WCREC open and continuing to provide service.  Despite its precarious financial existence during this time period, WCREC continued to flourish and grow, serving a steadily increasing number of callers/service users each year and developing a reputation for providing a unique and essential mental health service to women.

Since 1979, WCREC has had students doing practicum placements from institutions such as George Brown College, Humber College, Seneca College, Ryerson University, York University and University of Toronto. WCREC is considered an excellent placement opportunity for students in the field of mental health, social and community work. For more information on student placements and practicums, click here. A combination of staff, students and volunteers provide the assessment and referral service to approximately 2,500 women each year.

In 1983, after five years of lobbying and negotiating, the Ontario Ministry of Health approved core funding for WCREC. 

In 1987, the Self-Help Program was initiated with the aim of training women about group facilitation skills and encouraging them to start self-help groups.  In addition, the program aimed to provide ongoing consultation and encouragement to women who initiate self-help groups

In 1990, WCREC received funding from the Metro Multicultural Access Grants Program to initiate anti-racism education for all personnel at the agency including Board, staff, students and volunteers. This project sparked a number of accomplishments including: developing a list of ethno-specific resources to which women are referred; revising the client intake form to ensure that referral and assessment work is more culturally sensitive and to develop statistics about all the groups that are using WCREC’s service; revising our therapist interview format to probe for therapists' cultural sensitivity and anti-racism awareness; providing training to all direct service workers at WCREC about the counselling needs of women from specific communities.

During this period, the staff team was able to reach a broader cross-section of agencies and communities than they had previously.  More requests started to come from agency workers who were being asked to run groups in their agencies with little or no training.  Training agency workers in group facilitation fit with WCREC's goal to increase the number of free resources for women.   In 1992, the program was renamed the Facilitator Training Program to reflect more accurately the service that is provided.  Funding for this program is provided by the City of Toronto. For information on the Facilitator Training Program, click here.

In August 1992, WCREC staff became unionized with the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, local 512.

In 1997 WCREC worked in partnership with Toronto Rape Crisis Centre/Multicultural Women Against Rape (TRCC/MWAR) and Feminist Advocates for Counselling (FACE) to address issues of violation in counselling. In 1998 the Client Rights Booklet was published.

In 2000, as a result of a board-staff strategic planning process, WCREC shifted to a staffing model that would eventually lead to providing in-house counselling. In November 2001 WCREC officially modified its operations to no longer be collectively run, but to be a participatory hierarchy. 

WCREC was located at 525 Bloor Street West for 19 years; however, in May 2001 there was a fire in the restaurant below WCREC.  In 2001-2 WCREC temporarily relocated to 1499 Queen Street West in the building operated by Parkdale Activity and Recreation Centre. In May 2002 WCREC moved to a permanent new location at 489 College Street. This location is fully wheelchair accessible.

In the fall of 2002 WCREC commenced providing counselling as well as telephone information and referral. Based on service users’ feedback and changing statistical information, the new position of In-house Counsellor/Therapist was developed. This position serves to meet the increasing need for short-term brief solution counselling for low income women.

In the spring of 2003 WCREC underwent a strategic planning process that involved more job restructuring.
Currently, WCREC continues to restructure job tasks and titles as needed, with the goal of providing better, improved and more expanded services to callers and service users.
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