This is an artist’s drawing of the West Central Crisis and Family Support Centre’s future outreach and support centre, part of a project to develop a new women’s shelter in Kindersley
Kenneth Brown
of The Clarion
West Central Crisis and Family Support Centre officials are embarking on a project to build a women’s shelter in Kindersley.
Michelle Weber, the executive director for the centre, has shared details of a project to build a 16-bed shelter for victims of domestic violence. The group also plans to build a new outreach and support centre at the same time.
The project also includes a multi-bay garage and a storage facility to support people who stay at the shelter. Weber spoke about the history of the project, the need for a shelter and the funding to build and operate the shelter. She also shared aspects of the plan going forward.
She noted that there has been a long-standing need for a domestic violence shelter in the west central region. The organization has struggled to fulfil the needs of women who are victims of domestic violence.
The new shelter and outreach centre will each have 3,600-square-feet of space spread out on two levels. The project is estimated to cost nearly $3.3 million in total and Weber said the capital funding is coming from corporate donors.
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She said the non-profit organization has applied to the province for funding to support ongoing operations for a shelter, a future need. The Saskatchewan Housing Corp. has agreed to partner with the centre. And several other officials, groups and ministries have declared their support for the important project, she explained.
Early corporate support for the project came out of discussions with Jason Jaskela, an executive for Raging River Exploration Inc., Weber said. At the time, she said the company was making a donation to the centre.
During an initial discussion with Jaskela in February 2016, she said she told him the centre supports victims of domestic violence. Jaskela told her he believed it’s great the centre was helping victims, and he asked where the organization’s shelter was located. Weber told Jaskela there is no women’s shelter and she said he expressed his surprise that there was no women’s, children’s or homeless shelters in the area.
“When somebody comes to us that’s been experiencing domestic violence,” she explained, referring to people who have come on their own, come with police, come by referral or reached out to the centre to develop a safety plan or a safe evacuation plan, “we do not have a safe bed for them.”
She noted that the centre has a partnership with hotels in the area and the hotels have been generous by providing good rates. Weber said the only way the organization is able to house clients in hotels is through the support of a partnership with the Salvation Army.
Weber said the organization has limited funds to help, so the centre relies on emergency funding for hotel stays from the Salvation Army. The centre will use the time to make a safety plan or evacuation plan for clients. The Salvation Army books the rooms for one or two nights.
The maximum stay for clients is two nights and she noted that, whether the victims have injuries or not, the centre’s officials have to work to try to meet the client’s needs within a 48-hour window. Options include being evacuated from the area, getting situated in a new area or in a home community, or returning to their household. Weber said it’s a tough decision for clients to make in 48 hours.
The situation is even more problematic if a client has to be evacuated, especially if the client doesn’t have a vehicle, she said. If a client needs to be evacuated and doesn’t have a vehicle, the person can take the bus out of town.
Statistics help to tell the story. According to Weber, the centre has a 92 per cent failure rate for trying to evacuate its clients. The centre works with other shelters inside and outside of Saskatchewan if the clients are willing to travel there, she said.
Weber said a robust safety plan for clients in serious situations could include bouncing a person around from one hotel to another, but “the number one priority is making sure they’re safe.” She said a shelter is the best way to help clients and Jaskela told her the centre’s lack of a shelter is “completely unacceptable.”
She noted that Jaskela went back to Calgary and his plan was to discuss the situation with his colleagues, and even with executives for competing oil companies. The goal was to see if enough funds could be found to get the ball rolling for a shelter project.
In the end, Weber said several oil and gas companies stepped up to offer letters of intent to support the project and she has met with each of the companies. They are Raging River Exploration, Teine Energy Ltd., Iron Horse Energy Services Inc., SECURE Energy Services Inc., Inter Pipeline Ltd., Crescent Point Energy Corp., Whitecap Resources Inc. and Enbridge Inc.
She said there is the potential for other donors to come forward.
The 16-bed shelter will feature shared accommodation for clients, with personal bedroom space. Clients with vehicles will be able to keep them in a garage and they will have access to a storage facility for their belongings.
The organization has hired Jason de Haan as project manager and he developed a proposal with drawings and information for the project. Weber said de Haan worked with a group in Melfort to develop a women’s shelter, and it was the first new shelter to be built in Saskatchewan in 33 years.
“We are crazy excited because in the last little bit, we’ve pulled together all the pieces that we would require in order to grow emergency bed space here in the area,” she commented, noting that the organization will continue to provide all of its existing services.
The Town of Kindersley supports the idea and the centre is working with town officials to find a suitable location to develop the project, she said. The shelter will not be a secret in the community, she said.
If the community knows about the shelter, the idea is people will help to keep an eye out for anything suspicious, Weber said. The organization will hold public consultations to provide information and answer questions. She stressed that the centre needs to have the community behind the project.
Weber said the new outreach centre will be a ready-to-move building and the shelter will be a stick build. She added that Sask. Housing will be the lead on the construction project and the project will be completed 18 months after construction starts.
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