A Port Moody mom and entrepreneur can sleep better at night knowing that many women and children will be safer thanks to funds that will be spent on preventing violence against women.
Shirley Weir, a women's health advocate and founder of menopausechicks.com, won the Connecting the Community Award, a special category of award, at the YWCA's Women of Distinction Awards at the Vancouver Convention Centre Monday evening.
Weir, who reached out to her online community to get it to vote for the violence prevention cause, will now see $10,000 donated by Scotiabank to the efforts.
It's a cause she now sees resonates with many mid-life women, some of whom reached out to her during the month-long social media blitz.
"The cause is so important," Weir told The Tri-City News, "but it's a taboo topic. We're not talking about this at the water cooler."
Weir said she knew domestic violence was an issue but was shocked to hear directly from women in her circle who admitted there was domestic violence in the family, and in one case, abuse of a child.
Consequently, Weir, who has two teenaged children of her own, became passionate about urging her network to vote for her cause online and they responded.
"There were people putting it [voting online] in their calendar. They were voting on all the devices in their house," Weir said.
The money will go to aid the YWCA in developing new programs. It already runs two transition houses for women and children who have left abusive relationships as well as a legal service program and education services targeted to youth.
YWCA also promotes a national "Week without Violence" campaign.
WOMEN'S HEALTH
Meanwhile, Weir is busy developing resources and information on health issues for women dealing with menopause and perimenopause, with a book and a documentary on the way.
Since its 2011 inception, menopausechicks.com has grown from a website to an online community with over 12,000 supporters through membership, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Weir also did a TEDx talk recently in which she discussed how women's change of life is misunderstood, and she looks forward to debunking myths about menopause and helping women access health information, including on the effects of stress on women's health.
Noting that it's not unusual for women to live to be 100 years old — instead of 50, as was the case just a few generations ago — women need to focus on caring for their health.
"It's about having healthy bones, a healthy heart and a healthy mind into my 60s, 70s and 80s," she said. "That's what's really exciting, too, it's about reframing how we think about menopause."
For more information, visit www.menopausechicks.com.
