New pilot program for employment help at Kelowna Women's Shelter

The Kelowna Women’s Shelter is starting a new pilot program to help people who have experienced domestic abuse find financial independence. The program is going to connect people in the shelter with the existing LEADS program from WorkBC https://workbccentre-vancouversouth.ca/leads , which helps survivors of domestic abuse find employment. The shelter’s executive director Michelle Dickie said although the LEADS program already exists, connecting it with people in the shelter is a more effective approach. “It's more of a targeted approach and intentional approach,” Dickie said.  The program will start working with people in the Kelowna Women’s Shelter on Tuesday, Sept. 17. “It starts with self-confidence, self-esteem. What are your strengths? What are your goals? What do you like to do? And then it moves into more pre-employment skills. Taking a look at your resume, interview skills, volunteer opportunities, job search,” she said. LEADS is a 12-week group-based program that includes one-on-one coaching sessions. It offers people food cards, clothing support and bus cards to help them with their job search. Dickie said programs like this are crucial for helping women successfully leave an abusive situation because of the pervasiveness of financial abuse. “For financial abuse, it is really difficult because it impacts somebody's ability to take those steps away because they have no resources, no bank accounts in their name, nothing,” she said. “You take a mom who has two children and she hasn't worked in the workforce. So there's lower employment skills, and child care costs if she was able to work.” She said the program has been effective for people who have accessed it, and now people in the shelter will have that opportunity as well. “I've worked with people that have come out of that program, and it’s wonderful,” she said. The shelter’s programs are limited by its resources. There are 10 rooms in the shelter’s West Kelowna transition house location, and eight rooms in the Kelowna location, along with 32 units in the shelter’s second stage program. The transition rooms allow people to stay for 30 days, but the second stage program provides a space for up to 12 months. Since April 1, the shelter has turned away 97 women and an unknown number of children, but it provides alternatives when it has to turn someone away. There have been more than 500 people who have accessed the shelter’s 24 hour support to get resources, safety and exit plans, along with information about the shelter. In 2021, the shelter turned away 131 women. READ MORE: Kelowna Women’s Shelter continues to struggle to meet demand post-COVID https://infotel.ca/newsitem/kelowna-womens-shelter-continues-to-struggle-to-meet-demand-post-covid/it94178 “Providing donations and financial support is definitely needed,” she said. “However, creating these types of conversations and awareness around domestic abuse is just as important because you never know who you're talking to, who you're working with, that is experiencing domestic abuse. “A lot of people still view domestic abuse as a private issue, a personal issue, and it's not. It's a community issue." Dickie said statistics don’t paint an entirely accurate picture of the prevalence of domestic abuse since so many cases go unreported, so it’s important to let people know they will be believed when they do come forward. “The more that we can create opportunities for people to come forward and be believed in a non-judgmental way, the more that we can move towards supporting them in taking those steps,” she said. “On average, it takes somebody up to six to seven times to be able to leave.” She said the shelter is seeing more women who are experiencing various kinds of abuse aside from physical violence. “We're seeing an increase in women accessing services that are experiencing financial abuse, psychological abuse, technological abuse, especially with artificial intelligence,” she said. “A lot of people don't think about post-separation abuse. And when somebody leaves a domestic abuse situation, that's the time when they're at highest risk for femicide.” Abusers are using AI to create fake images and videos of people, and even using e-transfer messages to reach out to people they have abused. “There are a lot of different ways in which people can continue the abuse, even though there's supposed to be no contact,” she said. For people who want to help the Kelowna Women’s Shelter they can donate online https://www.canadahelps.org/en/dn/29194?v2=true , or donate clothes to the shelter’s thrift store. Shoppers Drug Mart is also collecting donations for the shelter from Sept. 7, to Oct. 4. Click here for the shelter’s website and 24/7 resources. https://www.kelownawomensshelter.com/ To contact a reporter for this story, email Jesse Tomas mailto:jtomas@infonews.ca  or call 250-488-3065 or email the editor mailto:news@infonews.ca . 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