Evidence of meeting #119 for Status of Women in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was shelter.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

John Gerrard  Chief Executive Officer, Habitat for Humanity Halton-Mississauga
Marie-Ève Surprenant  Coordinator, Table de concertation de Laval en condition féminine
Fabienne Héraux  External Services Social Worker, Lina's Home, Table de concertation de Laval en condition féminine
Melpa Kamateros  Executive Director, The Shield of Athena - Family Services
Sonia Sidhu  Brampton South, Lib.
Honourable K. Kellie Leitch  Simcoe—Grey, CPC
Travis DeCoste  Housing Support Worker, A Roof Over Your Head, Antigonish Community Transit
Bob Bratina  Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, Lib.
Chantal Arseneault  President, Regroupement des maisons pour femmes victimes de violence conjugale
Louise Riendeau  Co-responsible, Political Issues, Regroupement des maisons pour femmes victimes de violence conjugale
Violet Hayes  Executive Director, Island Crisis Care Society

4:15 p.m.

Executive Director, The Shield of Athena - Family Services

4:15 p.m.

NDP

Sheila Malcolmson NDP Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC

Very good clarification, there are two types.

Is there anything from the Laval organization?

4:15 p.m.

Coordinator, Table de concertation de Laval en condition féminine

Marie-Ève Surprenant

We think that it's an excellent idea to grant paid leave to women victims of domestic violence. However, we believe that it would be in the women's interest if the leave were significantly longer than the five days proposed. We've noticed that, in many cases, post-traumatic stress disorder, mental health issues or physical disorders arise once the women are in a safe environment and able to have some rest.

It's extremely difficult to keep a job when you're a victim of domestic violence. If these women want to return to the job market or keep their jobs, they must have enough time to rebuild their lives and regain power. Domestic violence is still an extremely taboo subject, not only in society, but also in the workplace. In short, leave must indeed be granted. However, for these measures to be effective, a great deal of awareness and prevention work must be carried out.

4:15 p.m.

NDP

Sheila Malcolmson NDP Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC

If I can turn back to the Shield of Athena, you also talked about the importance of having a quality of access to service, and that you are not seeing that. Can you expand on what the impact is then on women and their children when there is no equal access geographically or amongst language groups?

4:15 p.m.

Executive Director, The Shield of Athena - Family Services

Melpa Kamateros

The option of choice is not there. Most of the time when we hear or when we read about, or when we put on the television, we find out about the issue of conjugal violence because we have the door of entry which is language, either French or English.

Imagine when you live a situation of violence and the victim is encircled by that situation of abuse, which is all the various forms that abuse can have. The woman is also encircled by a circle of powerlessness, because she doesn't have the language skills. She doesn't know the system. She doesn't know where she can go for assistance. She doesn't even know that she is a victim most of the time.

This comes out a lot in the outreach sessions we do, because after we explain what the cycle is and the types of abuse, women begin to say, “Oh, I'm a victim. I'm not crazy. I'm a victim of conjugal violence.” When the woman is a victim, who doesn't speak the language, and is encircled, not only with the violence but all the blockages that keep her from making a choice, this is what we mean. How equitable is her situation in terms of somebody else who does speak the language?

4:15 p.m.

NDP

Sheila Malcolmson NDP Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC

I will just finish with a quick question to the Habitat for Humanity witness.

Thank you for your work. You are providing a lot of service to women and children. Do you know their path before they get to you? Are they victims of domestic violence?

4:15 p.m.

Chief Executive Officer, Habitat for Humanity Halton-Mississauga

John Gerrard

We don't know 100%. I can't answer that 100% accurately. There are a number of individuals who come to us through organizations. As my colleague beside me has indicated, in some cases they may not meet all the criteria that we normally require, if they are in a precarious employment situation and leaving. However, for the most part, yes.

4:15 p.m.

Liberal

The Vice-Chair Liberal Pam Damoff

Ms. Lambropoulos, you have seven minutes.

4:15 p.m.

Liberal

Emmanuella Lambropoulos Liberal Saint-Laurent, QC

I would like to thank all of the witnesses for being here with us today to answer our questions on this very important subject.

I'm going to begin with the Shield of Athena since many of the clients are actually members of my own riding and community. You touched on the fact that you service people in 17 different languages, something that we know is incredibly important, especially on the Island of Montreal and in other city centres around Canada.

What steps did your organization take in order to service people in these 17 different languages, and what do you specifically recommend that the government do to help in this area? What specific type of recommendation can we give the government in order to make sure that services are provided to a diverse clientele?

4:15 p.m.

Executive Director, The Shield of Athena - Family Services

Melpa Kamateros

At the Shield of Athena, we've always worked with the communities as well as the victims. We've found that when we work with the communities, we take a more inclusive approach and we educate more people on what violence against women is, particularly conjugal violence, what the consequences are and what the resources are.

I find that the prevention programs—and again I go back to this, because for us education is extremely important—are the first part of this linear progression for the woman in any case. It is the first step for the woman entering the system, but it is also a step towards bringing back a type of social consciousness to the community. We're educating not only the victims but the communities. For us, it's very important that the Government of Canada do this preparatory step before people are funnelled into the system.

I think I cited a statistic that only 30% of the cases of violence are reported. Where are the other 70%? How can we get the 70% to come out and say, “I'm a victim” or “I want to help a victim”, or “Can we direct the victims to this resource?” I think that is step number one. For us, public awareness is always step number one. So is the provision of services in a multilingual format. We cannot expect people to come to us. We have to be out there, we have to make this information available and we have to make it available in their language of origin. In the same way that we make this information available in the language of origin, we have to make intervention available in the language of origin.

Imagine how difficult it is for an intervention with a woman who is a victim of family violence. We call it a tripartite invention. We've educated what we call cultural intermediaries—or interpreters—to be able to participate in this. So it's the social worker to the cultural intermediary, the cultural intermediary to the client, the client back to the cultural intermediary and then the cultural intermediary back to the client. It's long, it's arduous, it's very, very challenging and it gets the work done.

I would say we need more information in the language of origin, more intervention—possibly in the language of origin—and more partnering up with existing resources. I always cite the pilot project that we did with the shelters in Laval. It's fabulous. We get things done that way. The shelters can accept a lot of the women there. We give our linguistic services and we do service a lot of people.

4:20 p.m.

Liberal

Emmanuella Lambropoulos Liberal Saint-Laurent, QC

Thank you.

You mentioned that not enough people come forward, only 30% do, and you work with these people on a daily basis. I was wondering if you had any ideas of how we can get more women to come forward. Also, people have actually come to my riding office and told me the reasons they don't go to shelters. They've given me their stories and told me why they don't go to shelters, and they're saying it's because they're afraid of losing their children in the process. What do you tell people who come to your shelter who have this fear? How do you comfort them?

4:20 p.m.

Executive Director, The Shield of Athena - Family Services

Melpa Kamateros

We're very lucky in that we began with the external services. Not all women want to go to shelters. It took us 13 years to make our shelter, but during that time, we always had the external. A lot of women would rather go to an external service than uproot themselves and go to a shelter. Having said that, the only place for a woman and her children, when there's a palpable danger, is in a shelter.

How can we get women both to the external services and to the shelters? Again, we can do it by providing information in the language of origin, by going through the school boards and by going to the media. We did huge programs in the ethnic media where we got a lot of information out to ethnic communities. There are various ways. I know it's hard for women to come out because it has to do with an intimate relationship, a relationship with somebody else, and even if I speak English and you speak French, it's very difficult. Imagine how much more difficult it is for women who do not speak the language.

I hope I answered the question.

4:20 p.m.

Liberal

Emmanuella Lambropoulos Liberal Saint-Laurent, QC

John, the last question is for you.

You mentioned that you would like to see the government take a lead in getting organizations to work collaboratively so that they can focus on their strengths and get more done. How do you suggest we do that? What are your recommendations?

4:20 p.m.

Chief Executive Officer, Habitat for Humanity Halton-Mississauga

John Gerrard

If we look at Habitat for Humanity, the idea would be to encourage, if not direct, that collaborative approach among organizations first, to find the right partner.

Through any funding model, you could hopefully encourage collaboration as a primary opportunity and ask those folks, whether there's funding at the front end or not, if they are able to create a collaborative that is going to save money and build faster. I think there are ways you can solve the demand and supply issue faster than we are today just by changing the funding requirements.

4:25 p.m.

Liberal

Emmanuella Lambropoulos Liberal Saint-Laurent, QC

Okay. Thank you very much.

4:25 p.m.

Liberal

The Vice-Chair Liberal Pam Damoff

Thank you.

We have only five minutes left, so the clerk suggested we could go to one question for each party.

Kellie, would you start? Then we'll have Sheila and I am going to use the chair's prerogative and take the last question for the Liberal Party, if that's okay.

4:25 p.m.

K. Kellie Leitch

If there are only five minutes why don't you start, Pam, and have your question and then if there is time left we'll continue.

4:25 p.m.

Liberal

The Vice-Chair Liberal Pam Damoff

Okay.

John, you have worked with Halton Women's Place, which is the only women's shelter in Halton. They don't have enough space for the women who are there, so as a result they have to turn women away.

I wonder if you could talk a little about that partnership, because I think when people think of Habitat, they think of one family, one house. Maybe also, how are you doing a rent-to-own model, and could you expand on what types of housing you're providing?

4:25 p.m.

Chief Executive Officer, Habitat for Humanity Halton-Mississauga

John Gerrard

Thank you, Pam.

Habitat is changing its model. It has to change its model to serve more families for our mission. We are implementing new programs that meet a growing, diverse audience. That includes organizations like women's shelters and transitional housing.

You mentioned Halton Women's Place. We have now provided them with three locations were they provide secondary transitional programming. They select the clients who will go into those homes and support them. We manage the mortgage and we manage the relationship, but they manage the client involvement there. I think that's a fundamental difference in where we're headed.

We're now starting to enter into different models of mortgage lending. In the past we were very much focused on home ownership. We continue to be primarily focused on that; however, we are now offering alternative strategies to allow mobilization of individuals in precarious situations who may want to move, who need a temporary solution, but want to take the equity they have contributed and eventually relocate to better themselves and be more successful. That's through our new deferred home ownership or rent-to-own program.

Finally, I think the change we're doing as an organization is that we're now building physical buildings for organizations. That's where we are able to mobilize our strengths and provide housing for the client to be able to use in their need, not ours. Working collaboratively, we're going to be more successful.

4:25 p.m.

Liberal

The Vice-Chair Liberal Pam Damoff

I have just one other quick question.

Kellie touched on the issues with CMHC, and you and I have had that conversation as well. How do you make sure that if an organization gets the funding up front, as opposed to at the back end, that the money is spent, and in the way it was intended? Do you have any suggestions around that?

4:25 p.m.

Chief Executive Officer, Habitat for Humanity Halton-Mississauga

John Gerrard

I think the predominant challenge with funding at the front end has always been: What will the organization do? Will they apply it accordingly, or will they use it in some operating fund that is not utilized?

I think there are certain regulations within even the IAH funding model that do require organizations to provide certain requirements and criteria, legal documentation and agreements that hold the organization accountable. I think we have to make sure those are the leading drivers, Pam, but also I think some legal precedents have to be set for partnerships and organizations. We're registered charities or not-for-profits in a lot of cases, so I think having a more substantial legal agreement is also an opportunity for us.

4:25 p.m.

Liberal

The Vice-Chair Liberal Pam Damoff

Thank you.

Yes.

4:25 p.m.

K. Kellie Leitch

The one question I want to ask the other two organizations, which John has already responded to, is this. Both organizations talk of collaboration as well, and it would be outstanding to be able to get your input on what you think are those key components of collaboration that should be focused on.

4:25 p.m.

External Services Social Worker, Lina's Home, Table de concertation de Laval en condition féminine

Fabienne Héraux

What is special about Laval is that organizations want to work together, in partnership. We do a lot of collaborative work. The three homes receive women who are victims of domestic violence. So we try to pool our funds to raise awareness and to be able to receive and support women who turn to one of our organizations.

We will soon undertake awareness-raising activities, as we do every year. One of the issues we will talk about is an invisible form of violence—psychological violence. In Laval, we can raise awareness in subway stations, on buses and through radio stations. The goal is to educate as many residents of our island as possible, who are part a growing and diverse population. We want people to be aware of the available resources.

4:30 p.m.

Coordinator, Table de concertation de Laval en condition féminine

Marie-Ève Surprenant

Concerning the building of shelters, all the organizations that are working on housing projects must absolutely use collaboration and partnerships. We are actually not developers. We must all establish relationships with private sector developers or community developers. Partnerships are essential, and funding is a key issue.

As Ms. Kamateros mentioned, the process is long and arduous. Funding is late, and organizations are the ones that support projects on a volunteer basis. No funding is provided for ensuring project coordination, the development of the financing package, or for the search for land. So the groups do all the work preliminary to construction by providing human and financial resources. That is the really difficult part for organizations and it means that projects take time to develop.