Dias raises thousands for shelter

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Unifor National President Jerry Dias raised more than $55,000 for the Halton Women’s Place on Sept. 28 as he took part in the shelter’s ‘Hope in High Heels’ walk in Burlington that morning.

It was the third straight year that Dias took part in the annual walk with his son Jordan.  The pair signed up after seeing an ad in their local paper, and have now raised more than $125,000 for Halton Women’s Place over the years.

A number of other Unifor members joined Dias in the walk.

 “At any given time, the Halton Women's Place has 52 women and children living there,” said Dias. “This is a small fraction of the more than 3,000 women and 2,500 children living in emergency shelters across Canada on any day of the year – which amounts to a national catastrophe.”

In a story written for the Huffington Post, Dias said the walk does more every year that just raise much-needed money for the shelter. It also raises awareness about the issue of violence against women and gets people talking about what can be done.

“The walk is an opportunity to have a massive conversation about why we have women's shelters and the enduring force of gendered violence and social, political and economic inequality.