Archives for November 2019

Archive for November, 2019

Sippin Santa

Posted on: November 27th, 2019 by Nellie's No Comments

Two Toronto bars serve up Christmas in support of Nellie’s

How do you best a kitschy over-the-top Christmas pop-up bar that serves up only speciality Christmas-themed cocktails while donating $1 from every drink sold to Nellie’s?

By opening up a sister location, of course!

During the 2018 holiday season, Nick Kennedy (owner of the bar Civil Liberties) and Lauren McKenna, drew a lot of attention from both the media and Torontonians alike when they opened Miracle on Queen Street. It was the Toronto franchise of the worldwide Miracle pop-up concept that brings holiday-themed drinks and over-the-top Christmas decorations to cities across the U.S., Canada, Europe, Asia and Central America. Nick and Lauren’s project, which took over an event space on Queen Street West, was the first in Toronto.

The bar opened on Black Friday and after it closed its doors on Boxing Day, Nick and Lauren presented Nellie’s with a cheque for $30,000.

And so, this holiday season, Nick reached out to fellow bartender Alfred Siu, owner of Project Gigglewater on Dundas West to join in on the fun. While Miracle is serving up kitsch and Christmas cocktails (this time on Ossington Ave. near Queen St. W.) from November 25 to Boxing Day, Project Gigglewater has transformed into a Sippin’ Santa cocktail bar and is serving up a love of all things tiki Christmas. Both are planning to donate $1 from every drink sold to Nellie’s.

“It’s a lot of fun. I love Christmas and I love tiki as well,” says Alfred. “It’s a little different from Miracle. We’ve decorated in more of a beach theme with thatching and bamboo everywhere. There are still presents hanging from the ceiling but we’re serving tiki-style drinks rather than just Christmas cocktails and we are all dressed in beach shirts.”

The idea for Sippin’ Santa was born in 2015 in New York City specifically as a companion pop-up to Miracle but with a tiki twist. Think of Santa on a surfboard instead of a sleigh and palm trees instead of pine. This year, 27 locations across North America are celebrating a festive love of tiki.

“We’re a smaller venue than last year’s Miracle but we are hoping to raise around the same amount of money as they did,” says Alfred. “Nellie’s is a really good cause. I’m really impressed with the work they do in helping to reduce violence and in supporting women and children.”

Thank you, thank you to Sippin’ Santa and Miracle Toronto for your support of women and their children who come to Nellie’s. We are beyond grateful for your generosity.

Advocating against the criminalization of women

Posted on: November 5th, 2019 by Nellie's No Comments

In domestic violence situations, a disproportionate number of women who were reporting violence against them, instead have found themselves facing criminal charges. At Nellie’s we recognize and understand that the criminalization of women is not just the process of experiencing arrest, coming into the contact with the law, criminal convictions or incarceration, but that it is a systemic targeting of oppressed and marginalized people.

“In domestic situations, criminalization is a big problem,” says Anita Nathan, a criminal defence lawyer and a community member of Nellie’s Social Justice and Accessibility Committee. “I’ve personally represented a number of women who have been charged with domestic assault even though they themselves have been the victim for years.”

Anita has been a member of the Social Justice and Accessibility Committee since early 2018. She grew up in poverty, having fled to Canada from Sri Lanka with her family during the civil war, and always wanted to give back to the greater community.

“I wanted to do something fulfilling with my career and I wanted to be able to give back to my community by sharing my knowledge,” says Anita.

Anita, along with her committee colleague, Caitlin Smith, spent their spare time during the summer of 2019 creating the Women and Criminalization fact sheet on social justice and accessibility related issues for use by Nellie’s board members and staff. The Women and Criminalization fact sheet summarizes Nellie’s Position Paper on Women and Criminalization, which was originally released in 2018.The purpose of creating the fact sheet version was to distill the vast amount of information into an easily accessible and succinct version.

“When Nellie’s has to make any sort of statement or media comment, this information is now at our fingertips. We don’t have to go and collect, and look for, the data,” says Anita, adding that being able to do so will aid Nellie’s in its advocacy efforts.

An excerpt from the fact sheet

Nellie’s recognizes the process of criminalization as traumatic, especially to women who have already been traumatized by violence against women (VAW) and other interlocking systems of oppression. Nellie’s recognizes that there are intersections that greatly increase the risk of criminalization of women, which include:

Women who use drugs
Women who are in poverty
Indigenous women
Black women
Women who do sex work
Women with mental health concerns
Trans, Genderqueer and Non-Binary folks
Women experiencing violence

Nellie’s advocates for decriminalization and transformative justice that does not rely on increased law enforcement. We adhere to a social justice approach that aims to prevent and divert women from becoming criminalized. We recognize the barriers within the legal and correctional systems, as well as the barriers women face upon release, as further traumatizing women and preventing women from accessing the support they need.

Read the Women and Criminalization fact sheet.

Read Nellie’s Position Paper on Women and Criminalization.