Medicine Hat Women's Shelter: Supporting Community and Healing

A warm bed. A hot meal. A locked door. To many in Medicine Hat these are everyday basics, but to people fleeing family violence, it is a lifeline. Today we explore the vital services, fundraising efforts, and community programs of the Medicine Hat Women's Shelter, highlighting how impactful communal support is in fostering healing and resilience for those in crisis.

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction 

00:44 Evolution of the shelter

01:15 Philosophy behind the shelter focusing on basic human needs

02:06 The Growing Hope Coaster Campaign

02:44 How establishments receive coasters

03:58 Details about the annual Golf Tournament 

04:44 Sponsorships, auction items, and event planning

06:30 Renovation project details and costs

07:58 Impact of renovations on shelter accessibility and safety

09:04 Construction challenges and temporary relocations

10:26 Donation options

11:12 Shelter legacy fund

12:02 Operational aspects, staffing, programs and 24/7 emergency services

12:22 Crisis response process

13:43 The importance of support lines

14:11 Volunteer involvement 

15:08 Children and Youth programming

16:18 Client transitition processess

17:42 Collaborations with students and community awereness

18:36 Preventative community education

20:04 Wrap up remarks

Main Topics

• The transformation and upgrades of the shelter to improve safety and dignity for clients
• Fundraising campaigns, including the Growing Hope Coaster and annual golf tournament
• Community engagement through volunteer programs, school awareness, and legacy funds
• Crisis response processes and support services for women and children
• The shelter’s recent renovations and future fundraising goals

Resources

24/7 SUPPORT: Help Line 403-529-1091

Text Line 587-850-5885 

Web Chat mhwss.ca

Administration phone line : 403-527-8223 (M-F, 8-4:30)

• MHWS.ca - Official website of the Medicine Hat Women's Shelter
• Community Foundation of Southeast Alberta - Legacy donation program

Support the Shelter:

• Donate via QR codes on-site or through the MHWS.ca website
• Volunteer opportunities: Fill out the online form on the website
• Attend the golf tournament — registration info on the website
• Contributions to Bread and Roses or the Shelter Legacy Fund help sustain ongoing efforts

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Transcript

0:00

Hey, this is Brian again, and I'd like to ask you to do a favor. We can't do this work without people like you. So if you can, please like, share, subscribe, tell your friends about bring back the porch. That original building had been built in 1998, and it was built as a 11 bed for 11 beds, which means 11 people can sleep there. When we started the renovations, we had up to 30 plus people sleeping there in the same physical blueprint, so we were really bursting at the seams. And so when we started doing initial exploration work, we realized there was a few things we also needed to bring up to code. We needed to put in a fire suppression system. We needed to add ramps, wheelchair, a barrier free bedrooms on the main floor. And really, our whole campaign was called. It's about basic human needs. And really what we were really trying to focus on is like, people need a place to come when they're in danger and in crisis and suffering trauma, and that we need to be the soft place for them to land. So we just wanted to create a space that was just that, that just gave them some dignity. And they could have their own bedroom with their own bathroom. And at one of the things that we never had before was their own bathrooms. They shared bathrooms. And so just simple things like that that you really wouldn't think of it, make such a world of difference. This episode of bring back the porch. Brought to you by Bernie Leahy, River Street Realty. Let's get you home. And on this episode of Bring Back the Porch. I'm pleased to welcome Natasha Carvalho, the executive director of the Medicine at Women's Shelter, and Kali McGougan who is the communications and fundraising coordinator. Welcome to the porch. Thank you for having us. Now, we were talking before we started here that of all the services that are offered by the women's shelter, there's no charge for the clients. That's correct. Yes, absolutely. That means you have a lot of fundraising to do. We did. What we're going to talk about today, some of the ways that you help raise money to pay for the services of the women's shelter in Medicine Hat. No particular order, but I thought that the one that we might start seeing soon as the growing Hope coaster campaign. If you can explain what that's all about and where we're going to find them. For sure. So the coaster campaign is an awareness campaign that we run a little less centered on fundraising and a bit more on just getting some awareness of our programs and services in the community. So with these coasters, we the goal is to get them out to local cafes, restaurants, places in our community that people will see them. So they're free of charge. We will bring them to the restaurants. And so they've got our messaging and then how you can contact us, and also a QR code on the back to donate. So that's one of the ways that we try to get the word out about our programs and services. How do people, if they want to have these in their establishment, how do they get ahold of you? They would email or call me. So yeah, so they can call us at the shelter using our admin line, or they can email me as well. And when does this start. So we already have them out. So I think right now we have them at about 16 places. And we've given out about 3000 of them. So and we still have lots to give. Do you ever have a way to gauge how the the message gets through to people? Say they contact you and say, I saw your coaster or saw the poster, and it's a little bit harder to track that kind of awareness piece. If somebody were to donate using the QR code, then we could track that. But as far as how much awareness, it's a little bit harder to track that. Yeah, but it does put the women's shelter into the mindset for people to for sure. Sometimes people take pictures with the coaster if they're at the restaurant and tag us in it on Instagram or something. So then we kind of know that it's getting out there. Sharing it on social sharing with the community. 24 years now for the golf tournament. This has become an annual event, a highlight of the summer. I think it's in September. Yeah, so it's always on the first Thursday in September. So this year it's September 3rd at the Medicine Hat Golf and Country Club. And so you can register a team of four for 700 or an individual golfer for 175. Do I have to be a good golfer. No no no no no it's shotgun star. Best ball. It's just fun. Shoot me right off. No, it's just a fun time. Just a fun time. Definitely not. I mean, we do have some people who are competitive, for sure, but you definitely do not need to be a pro golfer in order to sign up for the tournament. So best ball format? Yes it is. So when I hit it into the river, I don't count. Yeah, that's my favorite. And we sell a lot of mulligans. Oh. Makes the day go pretty fun on the Mulligan. Yeah. When can people register? There's a deadline. Yeah. So registration is already open. It's been open for about a month now. We have about a third of registration full so people can register through our website. Or they can call in and we can get them registered as well. We take registrations pretty much up to the week of the tournament. So. And how many people can you accommodate? 144 golfers is our max. So yeah. What people get for the money that they donate here. I know that there's a lot. I mean, it's a jam packed day, you know, the whole day of golf and then our program to follow. So we do a dinner and then a silent auction as well. So. And I believe they get lunch as well. Once they get two meals. Yes. Round of golf and all the fun you can have. And and we have a lot of great sponsors who do the different holes. And so you can, you know, sample drinks and sample food samples and there's swirls ice cream truck somewhere out there too. And so there's lots of fun things as you go around the golf course. Can you mention the silent auction? That's all donated from people in Medicine Hat as well, I would imagine. Yeah. So local businesses will donate items or gift certificates, and we are still looking for donations for silent auction items if anyone is interested. Bread and roses is another annual fundraiser and I believe it's into 2027. Now we're looking at. Yes we are. Yes, March 6th, 2027. We always try to do it as close as possible to International Women's Day, which is March 8th. Yeah, that's my daughter's birthday, so I always remember mine's the seventh. So there we go. Good excuse for a party. Yeah, yeah, a little bit too early to talk about what you need for that yet. We always are looking for sponsorship for the event. That's really what makes it a successful event. The more sponsorship we can have going into the event, we know that you know, that kind of in terms of raising money for the night. We know already know we have that. We're always looking for auction items. We have a great live auction that night. So experiences or things like that or things that seem to be interesting to people to bid on as well as we run a silent auction as well, that means so items for that are always good. So yeah, we haven't started selling tickets for that yet. It's a little early, but we always like to have it on our forefront to start planning already for it. And it's held, if I remember correctly, Medicine Hat Lodge. Medicine Hat Lodge. Yes. Yeah, yeah, we have a dinner and a dance, and we have a live music in the cocktail hour, and then we have a dance band later on in the evening. So it's a jam packed fun night as well. You recently completed renovations as well. And you were saying before we went on, you still like showing them off like a brand new penny? You did? Yeah. What did the renovations entail? Yeah, it was a pretty big project. We've been working on it for a couple of years to kind of get to that point. And so we broke ground in 23, and then it took a couple of years to get all the work done, and we were able to move back in. And to August last year, I believe. Right. Yes. We had our grand opening at the beginning of September. Really the goal with it, it was to just make it more accessible, more inclusive, more user friendly, if you will, to create some better spaces for people to do, for staff to do programing and, you know, better ability to stretch out to do it. We were really jam packed. That original building had been built in 1998, and it was built as a 11 bed for 11 beds, which means 11 people can sleep there. When we started the renovations, we had up to 30 plus people sleeping there in the same physical blueprint, so we were really bursting at the seams. And so when we started doing initial exploration work, we realized there was a few things we also needed to bring up to code. We needed to put in a fire suppression system. We needed to add ramps, wheelchair, a barrier free bedrooms on the main floor. And really, our whole campaign was called. It's about basic human needs. And really what we were really trying to focus on is like, people need a place to come when they're in danger and in crisis and suffering trauma, and that we need to be the soft place for them to land. So we just wanted to create a space that was just that, that just gave them some dignity. And they could have their own bedroom with their own bathroom. And at one of the things that we never had before was their own bathrooms. They shared bathrooms. And so just simple things like that that you really wouldn't think of it, make such a world of difference. I would imagine during the construction period, things got a little close. It was a little tight. We ended up having to be off site for quite a bit of the time because of the putting in of the fire suppression system, so luckily we have other spaces, we have another shelter that we run as well. Our second stage to some staff went there. We had off site outreach buildings up at the Ridge Professional Building. We'd been up there for ten years, so we had some staff go up there, and then clients were relocated offsite to another space to keep them safe. During that time, because we weren't able to stop offering services, we just had to be very creative in how we did it. So the cost of that renovation did not come cheap. It did not. And we're still raising money. We are, we are. It was an $8.5 million build, which is typical in this environment right now. And we had saved 2 million already before we started it. So when we launched the capital campaign, we were at 6.5 million. So that was two years ago, three years ago, September 2023. So we're just under 1.3 million now left to raise. So we're getting there. But we just we I really want to bring it home is what I keep saying to people. I just need it to be done. And then we just, you know, because we have other monies that we need to fundraise. We still fundraise at least a half $1 million every year just for operating expenses. So this is on top of all of that. But it was just it was needed and it was time to do it. How do people donate to the capital side? I think there's QR codes all over the place to donate you can contact us. Was different options for people? We've had some people make pledges, you know, donating X amount for every year for so many years. That makes it a little bit more manageable as well. So we're really thankful for those kind of opportunities. You also have something called the Shelter Legacy Fund. We do. Yes. With the Community Foundation of Southeast Alberta, we started that quite a few years ago. Just to be able to people can leave donations in their will. They can leave us stocks and shares. They can leave us whatever works for their family. And that money stays there in perpetuity and we just get the interest from it. So the interest of it offsets our operational deficit every year. And so that's been a wonderful program to have because it makes sense for people. It resonates with them in terms of a way to be able to give and to leave a legacy and to make sure that, you know, their kids are taking care of. But they've also been able to contribute to community as well. And how do people put money into that? Through the community foundation, you can contact them and they can connect you with our program. You had, I think you told me, 40 paid staff. So you have a sizable operating budget every year, too. We do. Yeah we do. We have the two shelters, the emergency shelter and the second stage shelter, as well as an outreach program. We run a daycare, we run a children's and children and youth programing. So there's a lot of things happening, as well as a pretty robust community education and awareness program. So to keep all those things moving, yeah, absolutely. It takes a lot of people and our emergency shelter is 24 seven. So that requires staff around the clock. So is that still referred to as the Phoenix house? That's right. Yes. Okay. And you mentioned the second stage. That's right. House is a tree. It means temporary shelter. That's where the name comes from. So that's our second stage shelter. So when the phone rings and someone's in crisis, can you walk us through what happens when somebody calls in there increases? They would be sent to a support worker. They would take the call. They would make sure that they were safe in the moment. If they're not safe in the moment, we would make sure that we would dispatch police or figure out how to get them to us safely. If they're okay to have a conversation, we would either invite them to come to the shelter itself to have a conversation, or if not, assess over the phone, their their danger risk, whether they need to come in. Do they want to come in right away? Do they have children where the children just do a little planning around that. Once they come to the shelter, they would be met with a support worker. They'd be shown their bedroom. They'd just given a moment to kind of stabilize. We make sure they have a welcome package. Kids are often given a stuffy or a teddy bear, some fresh pajamas just to make it feel a little homey. Let them settle in for a little bit. We have a housekeeping staff on site, so we provide meals, lunch and dinner, homemade meals. So just we believe that's part of the nourishment and part of the healing. And so they would be, you know, whatever time of day it was, they could have a meal and sort of just ease in into that. And so then the worker could sit down and meet with them and figure out what they want to do next. You know, sometimes it's just the emergent right in the moment and now you're safe. Take a minute and then figure out your next steps. That I think has to be the take. That first step is the hardest. That's the biggest. I always say walking in the door is the hardest step. You have a text and chat support line. We do. How does that work? So this became really crucial right after Covid because we were finding people couldn't make a phone call to they weren't safe to make a phone call to access our services. So implementing a text webchat made it another way for people to contact us if they need us. So that runs 24 over seven as well. There's always somebody available to check that so they can be directly connected with our services. How many volunteers are involved? Oh, I think we have about 80 to 90 volunteers. 80 to 90. Yeah. That's amazing. Yeah, we have amazing volunteers. They come and help us with so many things. A lot of the special events that Carly runs at, they come to the shelter, help us cook, they help us do reception, child care, donation. It's amazing. I think we figured out it's almost like two full time positions worth of volunteer hours a year. So that's huge for especially for a nonprofit. Yes, we need all the help we can get. We'll take how do people become a volunteer? So to become a volunteer, the easiest way would be to go through our website. And there's a form that you can fill out and that will directly connect you with our volunteer and donations coordinator. And they do a little interview process that's a little bit different than most nonprofit organizations, just because we do have to do that. Background check the police check in the child intervention check beforehand. But yeah, the easiest ways to head to our website. Okay. You mentioned the children and youth programing. Can you do a little bit in more detail and what is involved? Because children are obviously in trauma at this time when they come in. Do you want to talk about some of the things you do? For sure. So for our child care program, there's a few different areas in that. We have our daycare, our treehouse daycare. And so that is accessible to any of the clients accessing our services. So, you know, if the parent needs to go for a doctor's appointment or court or something, maybe just needs a moment, they can have their kiddo in our treehouse daycare. And it's a really cool program because it's not just a daycare. They are also learning while they're with us. So they've got an age appropriate curriculum that they follow in the daycare as well. It's very trauma informed, trying to help them process those big feelings that they're having when they're staying with us. And then we also have our family support team. And so they are there to support the parents, whether it's, you know, developing a bedtime routine or whatever kind of support that they need. We have the family support team there as well for them. How do you clients move through the system, though once they've come in the door? They're not there forever? No. Technically, at our emergency shelter, the stay is three weeks to four weeks. But I don't know about you. I can't even remember what I did in the past three weeks, let alone come into a shelter and figure out how I'm going to change the rest of my life. So we are a little loose with that, and we flexibly flex it as needed. Part of the struggle also is there's just such a lack of affordable housing right now in our community, and so there's nowhere really for people to go. So people tend to stay with us a bit longer than they used to in years gone by, because they're just struggling to find a space. So part of what's lovely is that we do have the second stage shelter on site. So if they feel like they still want to receive supports and continue with programing in that kind of environment, they are able to access the second stage if we have space there and so they can move into the shelter there and then that shelter, you have your own unit. It's a two story, three bedroom townhouse unit, so you have your own space for your family. And it's lovely because you can lock the door and feel safe and, you know, take care of your needs. And so families can live there for up to a year. So it gives them enough time to sort of get back on their feet and then really figure out, what do I need to do? Is it upgrading? Is it getting a job? What schools do I want my kids to go to all those kind of things. They can actually sort it out. And while they're there, they're receiving programing daily and working with their worker as well. Room to breathe and absolutely, absolutely traumatic time in your life. Exactly. You have students from the college. they also come in and help on a practicum basis. Yeah, we love our students. We get students from the social work program at Child and Youth Care. We've had some nursing students in the past, and so it's a wonderful way to sort of grow our profession as well, and to give them the opportunity to learn about what this work looks like at a really hands on, kind of organic level. And then, you know, bring in their their knowledge from what they're learning at school and make it applicable to sort of what they're doing. And many times we've been able to hire those students on as part time workers or things like that once they're completed their, you know, time and done their practicals. Yeah. So it's a it's a good way to kind of keep it going. Yeah. We mentioned the coaster campaign. There's another awareness program that you run as well in the high schools that leave the lunchtime awareness. Yeah. So our community education program kind of focuses on that prevention piece. So we have a lot of programs that are focusing on crisis, but we want to also try and prevent the need for her services. So with the community education program we do presentations for K to 12. We can tailor it to any age group and our lunch and learn program. Specifically, we go to high schools and middle schools once a month and just do a quick kind of session over the lunch hour. It's very low pressure. They can come do a trivia question or a fun little activity, but then they're also learning about our services and know how to access them if they need. So the younger that we can teach these kids what a healthy relationship looks like, then maybe they won't need our services in the future. So boys and young men. Absolutely. As well as young ladies. Yeah, absolutely. And we're a gender inclusive shelter. So does it matter what you are? We're happy to. If you're fleeing family violence. You know, come on in. We want to support you. Yeah. All right. Anything else that you wanted to talk about? Before we wrap up for the day? I think we touched on a lot of things. I'm hoping we covered all our topics, but, yeah, we really just appreciate community support. I think that's one of the greatest things about running a shelter in this community is community steps up when you need them, and we and we know we can count on them for different events and for, like we said, volunteering and all the different things. So we do really appreciate it. Medicine Hat does have a big heart. They do? Yeah, absolutely. Your website is probably the best place to send people for sure. So our website is mhwss.ca All right Natasha Carvalho and Kali Mcgougan, thanks for the visit. Thank you so much.