Thank you, Madam Chair and the committee, for this opportunity today.
Just to let you know, I'll be referring to Armagh House by its first name in the rest of my discussion with you today.
“What is Armagh?”, some of you might be thinking. Well, it's not a shelter; it is a home. It is second-stage housing for women and children who have been victimized by domestic violence. To paint a picture of the physical setting where we help victims of violence, Armagh is a 1920s renovated home that houses women and their children in Mississauga.
I would like to give you a few important facts about Armagh. It has nine separate units, apartments if you will, ranging from 300 square feet to 600 square feet. The apartments are self-contained apartments for which our residents pay rent like any other apartment. They do so, however, with it being scaled to their income.
Each resident can reside with us for up to one year. Right now, today, Armagh continues to be the only facility to assist women and children in the Region of Peel after they leave emergency shelters.
The need for Armagh is clear when one considers that, in a period of 18 months, we had 110 referrals for women and children in need and we can only house 21 families for that period. We can house up to 40 women and children at one time. We often receive referrals from the Milton and Oakville areas, since these cities have no second-stage housing to offer these women who are leaving the shelters.
The above details show the need for Armagh, but it does not show how we have renovated the residence into a home so that the families we help have a safe, supportive environment for them to continue their fight towards independence and overcome the multiple issues they now must face with overcoming the realities of violence.
I would like to give you a brief history of Armagh to give you an idea where Armagh has come from and where it wants to go. Armagh has been open as the next housing option for women and children leaving local shelters since 1991. Historically, although these women would be referred to Armagh by the shelters, that is no longer the case.
Armagh is now housing women referred from the local Children's Aid Society and specifically from the domestic violence team. The need for places like Armagh is only expanding, but its importance goes far beyond simply giving these people a place to reside.
What does Armagh do besides simply offering housing? Armagh aims to move these women towards overcoming the challenges they face after escaping from violent homes. Our primary goal is to increase the safety of women and their children when they begin to return to the community. We also assist women on a personal level by enhancing their self-esteem to stop the cycle of returning to a violent relationship. We also help these women and their children heal from the effects of violence through counselling and we direct them to services to address their legal, social, and financial needs.
These goals are achieved through the many programs that Armagh offers. Examples of our programs and the scope of the issues they encompass include the following: developing safety plans to address the immediate safety concerns these women have and when they return to the community; providing parenting support for women with children, including public health consultations if required; applying for income support for the many women who do not have an income, education, or the knowledge how to; assisting and securing immigration status if needed; offering legal support, including applying for and being approved for legal aid; providing court support during the court process; and giving on-site group and individual supportive counselling.
There are a few more points I would like to raise. In 2013 we undertook to produce a strategic plan for Armagh, a defining moment in its history with the introduction of its first ever strategic plan. The strategic planning process was inclusive of volunteer board members, staff, clients, funders, donors, and community partners. Our collaborative strategic planning process confirmed that there is a clear admiration for Armagh's services within the Region of Peel and a desire to see services expand to meet the ever-present and growing demand of this high-population community.
We identified the following three pillars: establish capacity expansion and facility compliance options, care for the future by supporting our clients' children, and help clients build their new future.
As for establishing capacity expansion and facility compliance options, Armagh's impact is in part limited due to its location, size, and the age of the facility structure. It is our plan to expand in the future by exploring options to increase capacity at the present and possible future locales. This initiative is in the preliminary stages. It is one being discussed due to the needs placed on our current facility.
As for caring for the future by supporting our clients' children, it is widely acknowledged that a key opportunity to break the cycle of abuse is the engagement, support, and education of children who are witnesses of domestic violence. Our objective is to establish a comprehensive service model for women and children residing at Armagh. This model includes programs and community service partnerships, focusing on education and supportive policies for parenting, to stop the cycle of abuse.
In the strategic planning process, supporting children and youth emerged as a leading priority. Recognizing this programming gap for our clients, we are in the process of securing a plan for educating them and their families in an attempt to address the needs they have clearly expressed to us. A plan of this nature is sorely needed to assist these individuals to become healthy, first and foremost, as well as self-confident, and ultimately, self-sufficient.
As for helping clients build their new future, overwhelmingly, participants identified Armagh as providing not only a safe haven for clients, but also, the best possible opportunity for a new future. Participants also widely acknowledged that there are significant systematic barriers for women attempting to transition to independent living. Key barriers included economic disparity due to lack of employable skills, affordable and accessible child care, language barriers, lack of affordable housing, and cultural factors such as social isolation.
In conclusion, Armagh makes a difference in the lives of women and children who have had their lives stolen due to violence. How? It gives them the tools to rebuild themselves before re-entering the community, often for the first time in their lives.
We are part of the rebuilding process for these victims when it comes to their needs that stem from the realities of abuse. Establishing second-stage housing with supportive programs in communities where they don't exist, or are scarce, is one area where we can create stability, and strengthen prevention in the future for violence against women.
A national strategy would need to be tied to achieving clear and specific outcomes and strategies, and include measures to evaluate success. It would need to acknowledge the higher risk of marginalized women, connect it to other social issues such as homelessness, recognize the impact of children's exposure, ensure men and communities are all part of the solution, include effective justice responses, and include a comprehensive prevention plan with strategies ranging from public education to interventions for victims and perpetrators.
All levels of government would need to work together to bridge the service gap and ensure its success.
We are proud of our accomplishments in providing women and their children with the best possible opportunity to overcome the devastating effects of abuse, to deal with the past, to address the present, to plan for their future—the future for them and their children, and to live violence-free lives.
I hope the information I have provided will be useful for your committee's study. I thank you for your time and would be very pleased to answer any questions you may have.