ABOUT WAGEC
Women’s and Girls’ Emergency Centre (WAGEC) is a feminist, grassroots organisation that supports women and families in crisis and advocates for social change in the community. We are based in Redfern, Sydney and work on the lands of the Gadigal and Wangal people of the Eora Nation.
Every night, we support 200 women and children impacted by homelessness, domestic violence and systemic disadvantage. We do this by providing material aid, case management, biopsychosocial support, accommodation, and crisis responses. Equally we seek to address the underlying causes of gender-based violence through primary prevention activities with communities and private and public entities that want to be a part of the global movement to end gender based violence in a generation.
The WAGEC Journey
What we do
There are many circumstances that bring women and children to WAGEC’s front door. We create impact by delivering specialist services that meet the individual needs of women and families in crisis. Through targeted support programs we are able to create safe futures for women and children. This journey is the start of a deeper conversation about the experiences of women at WAGEC and the support we offer to enable safe futures.
Where WAGEC Began
Our Roots
It took one of our own. It took a woman.
To understand how the system was failing. To find those who had fallen through the cracks. To provide both practical support and the genuine, lasting empathy that can only come from lived experience.
Jeannie Devine was that woman. She scoured the city, street-by- street, finding the women in crisis that everyone else had turned away. She sheltered them, and guided them – turning the pain of her past into a catalyst for improving the future of her sisters.
40 years later, Jeannie continues that work. But she doesn’t do it alone. Because Jeannie taught us a lesson, the lesson that forms the foundation of our grassroots organisation:
it takes a woman.
That’s who we are. We’re the women.
We’re the women listening to women. We’re the women standing up for women. We’re the women working for women.
We’re the women supporting women in crisis.
We’re the Women’s & Girls’ Emergency Centre. But you can call us WAGEC.
Some of our publications, posters reports
