Young Women's Christian Association of Kitchener-Waterloo

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Covering the history of the local YWCA from its foundation in 1905, the 30 linear feet of papers include committee reports, financial documents, information on Y programmes and camps, correspondence and publicity materials. Also included are numerous photographs of the various activities, events, and people which make up the Y's rich heritage. Particularly valuable are the scrapbooks of clippings from the decade of the 1920's--a decade for which there is little other primary material extant.

The various series of reports, most notably the early committee reports, reflect the concerns which led to the founding and subsequent development of the Y's programmes. Founded on April 14, 1905 at a meeting held in Zion Church, the YWCA's main purpose was to provide for both the spiritual and physical welfare of the increasing number of young women who were coming to the urban and industrialized areas seeking employment and education. The local Y offered both a residence and a programme of helpful classes in embroidery, cooking, and "physical culture". Among the more unique features of the local YWCA was its "Factories Committee". whose individual members were assigned to visit fourteen local factories and invite "girls" employed there to use the Y's rooms and programmes. Another of the unique local committees was the "Organized Social Workers", a class formed "for the purpose of fitting a small band of volunteer workers for social service work in Berlin" (later Kitchener) and which was active from 1913 to 1917.

In addition to revealing information about the physical premises and programmes, the archives include records of financial matters which document the role women played in the wider community. Founded in the year that the local Young Men's Christian Association was forced to close temporarily due to "financial difficulties", the local YWCA and its founders were naturally preoccupied with financial matters. The collection details the never-ending fund-raising campaigns from the earliest "mile of coppers" campaign in 1906 through the controversial and heated 1912 campaign for a new building and site to recent fund-raising efforts in the local community.

View the online exhibition, YWCA 1905-1995 (A pictorial history of the Young Women's Christian Association of Kitchener-Waterloo.

Call number: GA75

Special Collections

Young Women's Christian Association of Kitchener-Waterloo