home / women of distinction / 2005 recipients / Beth Jordan

Beth Jordan

successful struggle in unsympathetic times

YWCA Toronto
women of distinction award 2005: social justice

Beth Jordan has a rare combination of gifts. She combines a sparkling and optimistic personality with a tough political analysis and focused activism. Her efforts have helped shape successful strategies responding to violence against women during unsympathetic times. Beth Jordan is the 2005 YWCA Woman of Distinction recipient for Social Justice.

Best known for her work on solidifying and expanding the Assaulted Women’s Helpline, a life-saving telephone support service for women isolated in abusive situations, Beth Jordan sets the tone for a savvy new generation of feminists articulate about the intersections of gender, race, class, physical ability and sexual orientation in the struggle for human justice.

In 1997, Beth Jordan took the helm of the Assaulted Women’s Helpline, setting the community a-buzz about the energy of this forceful young Black woman, just recently graduated from George Brown. Expanded in the late 80’s from an occasional service operated in the basement of Toronto area shelters, this vital organization was nascent when Beth took on its leadership. Under her direction, the organization matured into a more diverse one, solidifying itself structurally through systems, processes and board and staff development.

But it was not long before Beth Jordan, her new systems in place, was able to measure the true need for this service across the province. In an achievement that stands out as successes for women’s anti-violence work in a decade of backlash, Beth Jordan took the Toronto-based Assaulted Women’s Helpline Ontario-wide. Ms. Jordan researched, wrote proposals, developed media support, lobbied, strategized, developed architectural plans for alarger work space, and met with women’s groups provincially. She badgered, cajoled, charmed and, ultimately, succeeded in persuading politicians and decision-makers to fund her well-thought-out plan. She helped develop a new image and ad campaign for the new helpline that included television commercials, ads on shopping carts, posters in police stations and hospitals, and of course, the by-now-familiar Assaulted Women’s Helpline number in the front of every phonebook in Ontario. Today the Helpline receives 45,000 calls.

But Beth Jordan did not stop at this. She is also a founding member of the Provincial Cross Sectoral Violence Against Women Strategy Group formed in response to a spate of murders in the summer of 2000. The group successfully lobbied for an alternative to the "law and order" rhetoric of the day. They crafted 39 Emergency Measures for Women and Children, and advocated for all-party sign-off on a relief package for women and children in the Province of Ontario. Through brave and prompt interventions following her appearance as a witness at the Joint Committee on Child Custody and Access, Beth Jordan informed the public and the women’s community about the intimidation mounted by the fathers’ rights movement. She contributed crucial analysis to the overall women’s movement response to federal Divorce Act reform. Beth Jordan has provided stalwart backing to the successes and struggles of the Jane Doe audit, is a valued member of the Provincial Coroner’s Domestic Violence Death Review Committee, the first of its kind in Canada, and provided a steady hand during transition at the helm as the Board President of the once-troubled Nellie’s.

Currently, Beth Jordan owns and operates an independent management consulting practice that focuses on training, planning and evaluation for non-profit organizations. She remains engaged in the struggle for women’s equality rights and the fight for social justice. Beth was born in Bridgetown, Barbados. She has two sons, Adrian 9, and Kobe 7. She lives in Toronto’s Riverdale area.

more

download:
women of distinction alumnae
2009 women of distinction nomination form

annual women of distinction awards fundraiser
young woman of distinction
meet the 2008 recipients
meet the 2007 recipients
meet the 2006 recipients
meet the 2005 recipients
meet the 2004 recipients
nominate a woman of distinction
attend the WOD awards
volunteer at the WOD awards
2008 raffle
sponsor the WOD awards

related

ways to give
media room
advocate for change