N.S. shelter for women, children fleeing domestic violence seeing higher demand

The Cape Breton Transition House Association is the operator of Willow House in Cape Breton – one of the largest shelters in Nova Scotia for women and children fleeing domestic violence.

The shelter, and others across the region, offer a safe and supportive environment for those dealing with physical, mental and emotional trauma caused by domestic and sexualized violence.

Jodi McDavid is the executive director of Willow House, which has been operating since the 1980s.

• The information you need to know, sent directly to you: Download the CTV News App

"We are a 21-bed emergency shelter and we also have four second-stage housing units, and so that means we have apartments for once people have left the shelter and no longer have emergency needs, we have some supportive housing where people often stay with us for about two years," said McDavid during an interview on CTV Morning Live Wednesday.

The shelter also offers many outreach programs for people in the community who may not want to come into a shelter, but still want some support while dealing with domestic violence.

McDavid says there are many reasons why shelters such as the Willow House are seeing higher demand these days, including the state of the economy.

"A lot of people, with domestic violence comes financial abuse. Any stresses where there's already domestic violence can just create a worse situation so we are seeing a lot of that," she said.

"And of course, as we're all aware, there's a lot of stresses in the system, in the hospital system, in the medical system, getting mental health first aid, all of those sorts of things. And so, with all of those stresses, we become a little bit more busier as people are seeking other supports from the non-profits and things in the region."

"There have also been a couple of other big things like COVID and Fiona that meant that peoples housing was less than adequate, people had issues with abuse from their landlords… And so, it just all together created a situation where we are seeing a lot more people coming to the shelter."

According to the shelter's website, staff are committed to eliminating violence against women in Nova Scotia by:

• Working collaboratively with other equality seeking organizations, and the three levels of government, to address barriers that prevent women, and their children from living free from violence and abuse.
• Advocating for sufficient programming, services and funding for Transition Houses in Nova Scotia.
• Increasing public awareness of violence and abuse in our society.
• Conducting and/or participating in feminist participatory research.
• Providing training and networking opportunities for boards and staff of our member organizations.

"For people who are experiencing crisis, we have a 24/7 crisis line and so do all of the shelters throughout the province. So, we're there all the time to talk to people about how they can access different things in the community, whether that's legal aid or how to get on the list for housing," said McDavid.

"We also offer people one-on-one counselling when people come to the shelter. A lot of the time, they're coming with nothing and right now, Shoppers Drug Mart is doing a fundraiser for us where they're having a 'giving tree.' It starts Oct. 2, to help raise money for all of the little extra essentials that people need when they come to see us because they've just sometimes left in the middle of the night."

McDavid says financial donations and gifts are always welcome for anyone interested in helping the shelters.

"A lot of people will donate things like strollers, or car seats or things like that, which are very helpful," she said.

"Where we find we struggle is that we do have core-funding and that keeps the lights on, keeps the staff paid… and keeps foods in the cupboards. But we do get a lot of people coming to us looking for a little bit of help with groceries after they've left their abusive partner, or we get people who want to start over and they need to take a coarse and now they need books for that coarse. Maybe everything else is paid for," said McDavid.

"So, all those little extra things, which really aren't extras, they're things that people need to move on in their lives, all that extra money that we get from the community and from donations, that's what it goes towards."

For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page.