In 1975, in response to the recognition that a lot of immigrant women were marginalized either because they were unemployed or underemployed, women applied for funding to start the Working Women Community Centre. Marcie Ponte, a long-time worker at the centre, talks to Rise Up about the early days of the Centre, the services offered by the Centre, the immigrant women who used the services, and how the Centre helped to support those women.

“We were women who believed in what we were doing, had a social conscience, and believed in social justice, and we did it for those reasons.”

– Marcie Ponte