Transition Houses and Second Stage Housing

Transition houses are safe confidential homes for abused women and their children. Women in abusive or controlling relationships often struggle with the idea of leaving their partner, it can be overwhelming to think of all the decisions they have to make. When women come to transition house they are offered  support, information, resources and safe shelter. Women are often unsure if they want to leave the relationship permanently, or if they just need some time to sort through their options and feelings.Transition houses offer the time and space for women to make their own decisions with support and understanding.

Transition houses provide a home like setting, women and their children share a bedroom and single women share two to a room, the rest of the house is communal with a living room, quiet room, playroom, kitchen, living room and bathrooms. Food and basic personal necessities are provided for the residents, and there is no cost to stay. Women cook and clean for their selves and their children, and the mom's make the decisions regarding children's activities and bedtimes.

Transition house staff  can provide support, information and transportation to various appointments such as income assistance, legal aid, courts, lawyers, housing and various other appointments. Childcare is also provided for these appointments.The average stay is thirty days, some women return home, some move into their own places and some move into second stage housing.


Second Stage housing is available for women and their children, after leaving transition house. The average stay for second stage housing is one to two years. Second stage housing allows women and children ongoing support, as they begin life on their own. The rental cost are the same as income assistance to allow for affordable safe shelter during the families adjustment period. Ongoing support allows for follow up with ongoing issues such as, legal process, income assistance and single parenting. After the second stage time limits women are then expected to find their own housing in their community.


www.bcsth.ca

Citation Image

BCSTH Logo. 2010. B.C. society of Transiton houses, Vancouver. Web. 6 Jan 2013. <www.bcsth.ca>. 

Community Resources

The community of Abbotsford  B.C. has a abundance of resources for the residents. There are resources that are Federally funded, provincially funded, regionally funded, organised through religious groups, special interest groups and supported through community business donation and partnerships.

Abbotsford Community Services is a large organisation that has resources assisted by all of the above funders, they have programs such as addiction services, legal aid, victim services, babies best chance and English as a second language programs.

Peardonville house is a provincially funded licensed treatment centre, that is available to women or women and their children under 5 years old. It is the only provincially funded treatment centre where women can take their young children. Molly's place is based at Peardonville house and is a stabilization centre for women wanting to go into drug and alcohol treatment but needing to emotionally stabilize before taking on the task of dealing with their issues surrounding their substance addictions.

Police Victim assistance is a provincially funded program with a paid coordinator and volunteers, who work with the police to assist victims of violence and trauma. They attend trauma sites to support people and follow up with support, resources and court accompaniment.

Salvation Army is a faith based organisation working with the most marginalizwww.abbotsfordcommunityservices.com/ed members of our community. Salvation Army has a meal centre, homeless shelter, cold whether shelter, long term recovery clean housing for men. Salvation Army also assist with free clothing, furniture and rental subsidy for those who can not afford to pay.

Abbotsford Women's Support Services work with women leaving or already left abusive relationships. The outreach workers can assist with income assistance. court accompaniment, community information and resources. The Stopping the Violence counsellors provide one on one and group counselling to women. The Children Who Witness Abuse Program provides counselling  groups for children who have witnessed abuse.

Abbotsford Food Bank Assists families and single people with subsidized food from community donations. There is a strict criteria for qualifying for the food bank. The food bank volunteers require rent receipt, proof of income and I.D. so they can determine if you are eligible for the donation.

There are many more resources that can be accessed in Abbotsford the key is to ask questions when connecting up with resources so they can not only assist you but also refer you to other resources.

www.abbotsfordcommunityservices.com

/www.abbotsfordfoodbank.com

www.careandshare.ca/

www.peardonvillehouse.ca/


Cite of image

Abbotsford community services. 2013. abbotsford community services, Abbotsford. Web. 6 Jan 2013. <www.abbotsfordcommunityservices.com>. 

Diversity Mural. 2012. Flckr from Yahoo, Abbotsford. Web. 6 Jan 2013. <www.flckr.com/photos/ufv/7461722810>. 

Income Assistance

The Ministry of Housing and Social Development is the provincial government body that assists British Colombians with financial and medical resources, when a person or family is unable to provide financially for themselves and their children. It is easier to refer to this Ministry as," Income Assistance". There is strict criteria for being eligible for financial services.

The application for income assistance is now on line, people can use their own personal computer, if they have the Internet, if they do not they can go into the local income assistance office and use the computers there. If a translator is required, to assist a person applying and for any required appointments, the ministry can  arrange and pay the costs for a translator. Applying for income assistance is a long process and the application takes about 45 minutes to a hour to complete. There is a three week waiting period once you apply,  the ministry guidelines state," that a person must look for work during this waiting period." There are exceptions to the three week waiting period, a doctors note stating you are not able to work, a eviction notice if you do not pay your rent, homelessness, fleeing violence, entering a rehabilitation program and a few other exemptions. If you are unsure if you are eligible to waive the three week work search it is important to ask the income assistant workers.

Once the application has been completed, and it has been determined whether or not the three week work search needs to be satisfied or waived , you wait. The legislation says you should receive a call within five business days, this may or may not happen within this time frame. The initial call can be anytime within a day to three weeks. If you miss this call you may get a call back within a day or two. If you have not heard from a income assistance worker within a week, you should follow up with a call, just to confirm that you have not missed the initial call. The first call is to set up the appointment for a telephone intake interview call.

The intake interview call is when the income assistance worker will go over all the information that you filled out in the initial  online application. The worker will give you a list of papers to collect and bring to Income assistance such as, I.D., bank account information, bank profile forms, rent receipt,income tax papers, and car insurance papers. You must bring the required paperwork to your nearest Income assistance office, within five days, of the telephone interview. The income assistance worker then has five days to review all your paperwork and determine if you are eligible or whether more information is required from you to determine eligibility.

If you are denied income assistance there is a appeal procedure available to any person who applies. The appeal process has very strict time lines. It is best to find a community support worker or legal advocate to assist you with the appeal process.

www.eia.gov.bc.ca/bcea.htm
www.lss.bc.ca


Citation of Image

Banner. 2011. ministry of social developement, british columbia. Web. 5 Jan 2013. <www.eia.govbc.ca/wordmark/index.htm.>.

Legal Aid, Courts, Mediation and Parenting After Seperation

Navigating your way through the Legal System is a large and intimidating task. When you walk into to a world where you are dealing with terms such as parenting time, access, primary residence, child support and childs best interest ,you can leave with your head spinning.

There are several different requirements and options,with the issue of children and parents separation. If there is abuse involved women can access legal aid for approval, to have a lawyer assist them ,with working out parenting time and primary residence, of the children. There are financial factors to take into account. Legal Aid will look at you income level to determine, if you are eligible for their services, depending on your income you may have to pay a partial amount for your lawyer or may not be eligible for legal aid at all.

The provincial court houses make their forms very user friendly,so if you are not eligible or can not afford a lawyer, you can access the court house on your own and fill out the forms yourself. There is no cost to fill out and file papers in provincial court. When filing court papers for parenting time or child support, the parents are required to attend a Parenting After Separation Course, before  a court date can be set. While both parents are required to attend the course, only one parent has to attend the course before the court date can be set. This prevents one parent from stalling, the other one, if one parent is resistant to going to court.

Supreme court is more complex than provincial court. It is used if the children live or have moved to another province or country with a parent. Supreme court has become more user friendly in the last couple of years, it is still a very complex system,  it is highly recommended to have a lawyer, when going to supreme court. The paper work that needs to be filed for supreme court have financial costs attached to them.

The court process can take several months to complete,  there are several court dates that are usually set, before a order is reached. This is especially true if the parents are in conflict about the conditions they want the judge to set regarding, parenting time, child support and the primary residence of the child. The judge may offer a family case conference, to see if the parents can reach a agreement. A family case conference is when the parents, their lawyers (if they have lawyers) and the judge sit down privately together to see if the parents can reach a agreement.If  the parents are unsuccessful with the family case conference, the case proceeds through the courts, the judge will hear evidence and make the final decision.

Some parents want to avoid the court process all together and try to work out a agreement, with the help of a  family mediator. This service is provided by the courts to help cut down on the amount of time the courts are spending on  family separation cases. The parents can sit down together or at separate times with the family mediator to work out a agreement. Once a agreement is reached, it is filed with the courts and becomes legal and binding.This process is not recommended when there is a history of abuse and violence in a relationship, as it is not a equal process, when someone is trying to negotiate with their abuser.

Parenting After Seperation is a 3 hour course that is set up through the court system to give parents information and tools to look at the best interest of the children, as they all go through the 
www.lss.bc



services society, legal. InstancebeginEditable. 2012. legal services society of b.cWeb. 5 Jan 2013. <www.lss.bc.ca/publications>.

Domestic Violence

        Violence against women                                     

          Violence

The person who promised to love, protect and cherish you hurts you the most. What would you do if it happened to you? It is a question that is not easy to answer and a question that some do not have to think about. Everyday, women and children face the dilemma of what to do with violence. Women and children want to stay, want the violence stop, but what happens when it doesn't and they have no choice but to leave.

Violence in the home or with a partner is not an isolated incident. Violence is present in every race, culture, economic status and society. Violence, used as a method to control another or others, to break down the confidence, self-esteem and equal partnership. Abusive partners will keep the others "walking on eggshells." not allowing the abused know when or what will set them off, so the abused will always feel  oppression , never knowing "when they are right or wrong."

 I would like to write about resources that are available to women and children, in the community I live and work in. The community has resources and options available, if one does not know about the options, it can create a barrier for many women when deciding to leave a violent relationship. I would like to share the knowledge I have, based on 20 years of working in the field of violence, women’s support and violence prevention.

"Domestic Violence" is a term used by the courts, police, community resources, the media and many other community services to define the illegal imbalance of power, in the family unit. I prefer to call it" violence,” I do not like the term "Domestic, “ this expression waters down the serious impact that violence has on  every person exposed to it." Domestic",  implies that the violence is now tamed in some way just as we refer to house pets, as" domesticated", meaning the animals, are tame enough to live with humans. Implications of the term"domestic" also suggests, violence committed against a family member, is not as serious as violence committed against a stranger.

Violence in the family comes in several forms physical, sexual, emotional, financial and verbal.

Physical violence can include, hitting, slapping, punching, choking, kicking, pushing or any other unwanted physical touching. It also includes threats of doing "these things" to another person.

Sexual violence can include unwanted touching, sexual gestures, force of sexual acts to or by another person, withholding money or necessities, aggression and rape.

Financial abuse can include, one person controlling all the money, refusal of money for necessities such as food, shelter and heat, taking a partners income, not including a partner on the financial decisions of the family and making a partner account for every penny spent.

Emotional Abuse can include, not giving affection, the "walking on eggshell effect" having the household always unsure of your mood and how you will respond to a given situation, constant disapproval,

Verbal violence can include name calling, degrading, screaming, threats, and embarrassing a person in public

www.bcsth.ca

www.wrsfv.ca


Cite Photograph

Leclair, Ryan. Violence against women. 2012. studymagazine.comWeb. 5 Jan 2013. <studymagazine.com>.