Walter’ Story: How Yorktown’s Violence Prevention Program Changes Lives
March 7, 2026
A Space for Healing: Celebrating Yorktown’s Healing Garden
April 22, 2026
In an unprecedented show of cross-program appreciation, Rob Peters and the Home Depot Caledonia Road Team received dual nominations for a Community Partnership Award from both Violence Against Women Services and the Growing With Grief Program. Their outstanding support underscores the mutual dedication of Yorktown and the Home depot to build safer, stronger, and more resilient communities where families can thrive.
Shirley’s Healing Garden: A Legacy of Courage and Community
On November 29, 2024, Yorktown Family Services’ Violence Against Women Shelter marked the 40th anniversary of the tragic death of Shirley Samaroo, whose courage and story inspired the creation of Yorktown’s VAW Services. In her honour, Yorktown unveiled Shirley’s Healing Garden — a sanctuary of remembrance and renewal for all survivors of gender-based violence.
The garden’s creation was made possible through the vision of CEO Suzette Arruda-Santos and Director of VAW Services Gabbey Dessye. With the generosity of Rob Peters and the volunteer team from The Home Depot Caledonia Road, the first phase of the Healing Garden was launched just in time for the November 29 memorial event in 2024. Yorktown proudly recognizes Rob and his team with a 2024/25 Community Partnership Award for donating plants, materials, and their time, to transform the space into a place of peace, beauty, and reflection.
For Gabbey, Shirley’s story is deeply personal — one that inspired her career and continues to guide Yorktown’s work today. The Healing Garden stands as a living testament to resilience, compassion, and community partnership. It honours those lost to femicide and celebrates the strength of survivors who find the courage to begin again.
Guided by our North Star — the women and children we serve — Yorktown continues to turn loss into legacy and remembrance into hope. Shirley’s Healing Garden reminds us that a sense of community nurtures healing.
Growing With Grief: Nurturing Healing Through Community
For children and families facing loss, grief can feel overwhelming and isolating. Yorktown’s Growing With Grief (GWG) program offers a compassionate space where emotions can be expressed, memories honoured, and healing nurtured through connection and creativity.
Through Mother’s Day and Father’s Day Family Events, families are invited to plant flowers in decorated pots — personal “memory gardens” symbolizing enduring love and growth after loss. Thanks to the generosity of Rob Peters and The Home Depot Caledonia Road Team, who provided all materials and supplies, these gatherings have become powerful opportunities for remembrance and shared understanding.
Through their in-kind donations and meaningful partnership, the Home Depot Team’s support made it possible for Yorktown to offer this therapeutic, creative experience — one that helped grieving children and families see that they are not alone in what they are feeling. The shared act of planting, decorating, and remembering became a gentle way to express emotions and honour loved ones together.
As one caregiver participant shared, “The event helped my family feel less alone in our grief.”
Guided by our North Star — the children and families we serve — Growing With Grief continues to illuminate pathways through loss with compassion and connection, reminding us that it is through community healing can take root and continue to grow.