Status of Women committee  Quite often, as we know in indigenous communities there are multiple families living together, and that is often the preferred way. It is how I grew up as well, with my great-grandmother, my grandmother and then me, because my mother had to go out to work cleaning houses, etc. It

Status of Women committee  Yes. Absolutely. In Calgary we have the Bear Clan. We have another group who've called themselves Crazy Indians. When there is an emergency in the community, as we had a few weeks ago with the death of a young boy, these folks come out to be the firekeepers. As we know, we have t

Status of Women committee  The relationship we currently have with the police is severely fractured, and the atrocities that are happening to indigenous women within police services across the country are, in my opinion, an epidemic requiring immediate attention from the policy-makers and the legislators s

Status of Women committee  Thank you. We have to remember that the demographics of indigenous women coming into large urban centres have changed, particularly over the past decade. Indigenous women are coming from across the country to live in urban centres like Calgary. They often find themselves quite i

Status of Women committee  I'm so sorry.

Status of Women committee  Good afternoon. I'm Josie Nepinak, executive director for the Awo Taan Healing Lodge. I come to you this afternoon from beautiful Moh'kinsstis in the Treaty 7 territory, also known as Calgary, Alberta. I'd like to tell you a bit about the Awo Taan Healing Lodge. For 32 years we

Status of Women committee  Certainly, the Province of Alberta would have that data, through our funders, through homeless supports. Internally, at our lodge, we see approximately up to 15% of women return to the shelter. Now, we have to remember that there are different circumstances that happen in these

Status of Women committee  Oh, absolutely, it has a lot to do with that. I just gave the example that if a woman is returning to a northern community—let's say, Saddle Lake—it's difficult for us to provide transitional and support services or outreach to her when she returns home. We don't have mechanisms

Status of Women committee  I could answer that first. I think we have to understand that there is a war on indigenous women in Canada, not to mention the thousands of missing and murdered indigenous women. In order to address the shortfall, we need to start talking about a long-term comprehensive strategy

Status of Women committee  Thank you.

Status of Women committee  I can answer that question first. On average, each year, we field approximately 2,500 crisis calls. We provided shelter to 250 women and 275 children last year. Our turn-aways are about 1,200 women and children per year. Where do these women go? We do referrals to other shelter

Status of Women committee  It's about 30 days. At times, we have had up to three months.

Status of Women committee  They go into public housing. Some go into second-stage housing, and we provide outreach and support to those women. Some go back to their home communities. It might be in a neighbouring Calgary community, such as Siksika Nation or Tsuut'ina Nation, or Stoney Nakoda. It depends on

Status of Women committee  According to some of the research I recall from a couple of years ago, up to 45% of the women go back to their home situation. There are a number of reasons for that. One is the lack of safe and affordable housing in Calgary, and the other one is the social networks they have in

Status of Women committee  Absolutely. Second-stage housing, more wraparound services for women who are integrating back into the community if, let's say, they stay in Calgary.... If they should go back to their communities, what are the supports they need? There isn't a good communication process around