The Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal is seeing some hard times this year. The Quebec government cut $70,000 from the shelter’s budget for this year, and this while it was already $50,000 short of what was needed.
Right now, more money is only a dream for the cash-strapped shelter. “If we got the money, we could get the extras like metro tickets for the women or pay our bills on time,” said Jean Stevenson, the shelter’s interim executive director.
At the moment the shelter is running with a skeleton crew. “Normally the evening shift would have two counselors and now there’s only one,” said Stevenson.
This means the counselor can’t give as much attention to the women in the shelter because she is busy acting as a doorwoman and receptionist, as well as listening to each person when they need time to talk.
“In that way the residents are suffering,” she said, noting that the women’s needs are not being fully met.
Already, the shelter has laid off one employee and hasn’t replaced another employee who recently went on maternity leave.
“We can’t afford to replace anybody,” Stevenson said. The shelter’s working hours have also been reduced in order to cut cost.
Stevenson said the shelter’s cash crunch means it also needs more volunteers than they currently have. She said a Native women’s shelter is needed in Montreal because regular shelters aren’t equipped to handle the needs of Aboriginal women.
“There are specific needs of Aboriginal women from a cultural viewpoint. Here we look at the four aspects to healing women: emotional, mental, physical and spiritual.”
Each day there are morning ceremonies, plus healing circles every Thursday. The shelter also has access to sweat lodges, but needs money so it can bring in Elders to talk to the women.
The staff believes the shelter has to grow, not shrink.
“We need a bigger shelter,” said Stevenson. “We want to serve more people and do job skill training, but don’t have the room or funding for educational training or more rooms.”
Stevenson asks the public to help with donations of money (tax-deductible) and time because Aboriginal women are the most marginalized people in Canada.
“We’re the Third World in Canada and we need help as much as any Third World country does,” she said.
People who help share the wealth and assist the shelter will know they are not only helping this generation of First Nations people, but the future as well, said Stevenson.
“Native people want to get well and they want to work on their healing,” she said.
Brainstorming is constantly going on to raise funds to make the shelter work. But even though the shelter is hard-pressed for money, Stevenson says it would never close its doors: “There’s no possibility of this place closing because there’s too great a need for it.”
