News and Archives

The women we serve often come to us with very little. The following items will help them address simple needs, as well as provide dignity and hope.

All donations of basic needs supplies and hygiene items can be dropped off at our main office at 1731 – 10 Avenue SW. We are directly across the street from the Sunalta C-Train Station. Free on-street parking is available.

– download our Wish List here –

Please contact reception@elizabethfrycalgary.ca to arrange for your donation drop-off or call us at 403.294.0737.

Please note that we are not able to accept clothing donations due to lack of storage.

“Our clients are still people, they are someone’s daughter, mother, grandmother, cousin, aunt or sister. Many of them have children.” – EFry staff

Every gift helps to open the doors for another chance. Please download our Donation form and help someone today.

For over 50 years, the Elizabeth Fry Society of Calgary has offered help and healing to thousands of at-risk and criminalized women. Stuck in a cycle of poverty, many women make choices that have serious and lasting impacts on their lives. The lack hope for the future and don’t know whe re to turn for help. We are here to give them another chance but we need your help.

Our programs offer our clients another way and an opportunity to create more hopeful futures. Your gift will help us help vulnerable women and their families. Download our Giving Program publication here.

Our mission is unique. We serve criminalized women and youth, helping those impacted by the legal and justice systems. Our programs are diverse and designed to help clients as they transition into our community.

Read more and please share our brochure here.

The Elizabeth Fry 2014 Annual Report

 Our Mission

The Elizabeth Fry Society of Calgary offers pathways to healing, through supports and advocacy, for women who are affected by systemic social issues which contribute to their criminalization.

Our Vision

Equality that promotes a woman’s sense of self in her journey through lived experience towards infinite potential.

Our Values

Integrity – Consistency and truthfulness in actions and values
Ingenuity – Flexibility and adaptability in providing value-added services within an ever-changing social framework
Advocacy – Foster an environment of courage and empowerment for all those who interact with the agency

Our Annual Report can be downloaded here.

PIPER KERMAN, THE REAL-LIFE INSPIRATION BEHIND ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK, IS COMING TO CALGARY

Piper Kerman is perhaps today’s most popular prisoner on TV thanks to the success of the award-winning Netflix original series, Orange is the New Black. Kerman is coming to Calgary to share her incredible true story on Thursday, April 14, 2016. The View from Behind Bars – an evening with Piper Kerman is a special fundraising event for the Elizabeth Fry Society (EFry) of Calgary.

“We’re incredibly excited to announce this event and to have Piper Kerman bring her humour and passion to our stage to help us shine a spotlight on the very serious challenges faced by women as they transition from correctional facilities back into the community,” says EFry’s Board President Virginia Ashley.

Kerman is the best-selling author of Orange is the New Black, My Year in Women’s Prison and the inspiration for the award-winning series of the same name on Netflix. Her book explores the experience of incarceration and the intersection of her life with the lives of the women she met while in prison.

A brief dalliance with drug trafficking while she was in her early twenties sent Kerman to prison ten years later on money laundering charges. She spent 13 months in the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut.

“The public expects sentences to be punitive but also rehabilitative; however, what we expect and what we get from our prisons are very different things,” says Kerman. “The lesson that our prison system teaches its residents is how to survive as a prisoner, not as a citizen – not a very constructive body of knowledge for us or the communities to which we return.”

What: The View from Behind Bars: An Evening with Piper Kerman

When: Thursday, April 14, 2016

• 6:00 – 7:00 p.m. Doors Open & Silent Auction
• 7:00 – 8:30 p.m. Presentation

Where: Macleod Hall, Telus Convention Centre 120 – 9^th Ave SE

Tickets: On sale at www.eventbrite.ca

$50 general admission

$100 premium seating ticket includes a signed copy of Kerman’s book Orange is the New Black, My Year in Women’s Prison

“With Ms. Kerman’s help, we want to raise awareness about the unique challenges facing women – and their children – who are transitioning from prison to our community,” says Katelyn Lucas, Executive Director, Elizabeth Fry Society of Calgary. “This event will raise funds required to connect more women with new chances at life in the form of jobs, homes and acceptance.”

Since her release from prison, Kerman has worked tirelessly to promote the cause of prison and criminal justice reform. This event promises to be a heartwarming and inspirational evening that brings together Calgarians who need to hear this important message that calls for reform and restoration, issues that the Elizabeth Fry Society has been advocating for 50 years in the Calgary community.