{"id":652289,"date":"2026-05-06T20:51:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T20:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/652289\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T20:51:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T20:51:08","slug":"surrey-girlfriends-group-grows-to-2200-women-in-3-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/652289\/","title":{"rendered":"Surrey Girlfriends group grows to 2,200+ women in 3 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

Surrey Girlfriends group grows to 2,200+ women in 3 years<\/p>\n

Published 12:00 pm Wednesday, May 6, 2026<\/p>\n

Surrey Girlfriends has enjoyed impressive growth in just three years.<\/p>\n

Cinthia Barrera launched the social group in 2023 after moving here from Mexico City. Employed in IT and alone in a new city, she found it difficult to make connections in Surrey.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a newcomer and working from home,\u201d Barrera recalled. \u201cI didn\u2019t have any friends or family here and I started looking for ways to socialize, but I noticed that most events were in downtown Vancouver. I thought, Why are there not more things going on in Surrey? So I started a little Facebook group and encouraged women to join.\u201d<\/p>\n

Surrey Girlfriends membership has since ballooned to more than 2,200 women. Close to 50 in-person events have been held, with more to come, and in December the group registered as a nonprofit.<\/p>\n

On Facebook<\/a> the group is described as \u201ca welcoming community for all self-identifying women in Surrey, BC. We offer a safe and supportive space to connect, learn and grow through social events, activities and meaningful conversations. Join us to build friendships and find support among like-minded women from diverse backgrounds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Surrey Girlfriends was built differently, Barrera insists.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat makes this story interesting isn\u2019t just the growth (of the group), but the problem it\u2019s addressing,\u201d she told the Now-Leader. \u201cMany women, especially those balancing work, caregiving or adjusting to a new city, struggle with social isolation and lack of accessible, local opportunities to build real connections. Most events are centralized or one-time experiences, which makes it hard to form lasting relationships.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Surrey Girlfriends, \u201cthe focus is on small, repeat, in-person gatherings within the community, things like creative workshops, wellness sessions, and networking circles, etc., designed specifically to help women build ongoing relationships, not just attend events.\u201d<\/p>\n

On May 24, a \u201cBreathe & Bloom: A Breathwork Experience\u201d gathering is at Surrey City Centre Library. By-donation tickets can be secured on zeffy.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Other coming events include \u201cCreate & Unwind: Mirror Decorating with Clay\u201d (June), monthly stretching sessions, a DIY Pi\u00f1ata workshop (September), making handmade soap (October), monthly Book Club meetings and more.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a nonprofit and we always try to make things free, but sometimes it\u2019s not possible,\u201d Barrera noted. \u201cBut if it\u2019s not possible to make it for free, then we ask for a donation. People can donate just $1 or more, if they can, it\u2019s OK.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most events take place at Surrey City Centre Library and in condo\/apartment building amenity rooms of group members.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe go to South Surrey, Newton, Guildford, Cloverdale, we cover all of Surrey,\u201d Barrera noted. \u201cEveryone is welcome as long as they are willing to come to Surrey for events. We have people coming from Coquitlam, Langley, even from Vancouver.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barrera said she and others have made many friends among Surrey Girlfriends.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really have no other way of meeting people here, so this is my source of friendships, connections, networks,\u201d said the Guildford resident.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the beginning I was surprised by how it was growing organically so fast. But then I started noticing how many of the women were new to Surrey, newcomers, or their lives had changed because they are now mothers, things like that, and they lost connections and were looking for connections again. Everyone wants to connect with their community, so now it makes sense.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Surrey Girlfriends group grows to 2,200+ women in 3 years Published 12:00 pm Wednesday, May 6, 2026 Surrey…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":652290,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,163792,87674],"class_list":["post-652289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-surrey","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-lower-mainland","tag-surrey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}