New Strategic Plan helps Nellie’s take brave steps towards the future
Our job at Nellie’s is to make sure the most vulnerable people in our society don’t fall through the cracks. Even more so, it’s to make sure they have access to the best possible services to meet their specific needs and access to the most valuable thing in their lives —a safe place to live. Nellie’s as a shelter is there for each and every one of them, and as an organization, we strive to serve as a role model for the sector as whole.
We are meeting that challenge with our new three-year Strategic Plan that commits us all to the vision of moving Nellie’s to the next level. The immense need for our services hasn’t diminished in over 45 years, it has only grown. Our Strategic Plan creates the framework to organize ourselves in new and different ways in order to move our agenda forward and attract funders, while remaining committed to our principles.
Strategic Direction 1: Improve organizational capacity and resilience.
Women’s Shelters Canada More than a Bed Report highlighted that insufficient funding was a major challenge faced by shelters across the country. The trust and support of our donors last year, and every year, means that we can augment our funding to offer the programs and services that build confidence and help women to take the brave steps towards accomplishing the next chapter in their lives.
As a board, we acknowledge the need to expand our capacity for fund development and strengthen our branding and marketing — because having one of our best ever fundraising years simply means we need to raise the bar to enhance what we do and how we do it. To expand our horizon, we are committed to putting the right number of people in place.
Strategic Direction 2: Expand and improve the physical space to better serve Nellie’s priority populations.
For almost half a century, Nellie’s has sheltered women and children in a beautiful, historic residential building. But for many years now, we have wished to improve the living conditions and offer greater accessibility for those in our shelter. Our space, after all, was designed for 16 beds not 40. We have already found a new building in our same east end neighbourhood. It will be accessible to everyone and has the space for all of our residents to have privacy as we continue to provide them with support. And while it meets all of our needs, it still retains the charm, comforts and homey feeling of our current building. In the coming year, we look forward to making this transition to our new building.
Strategic Direction 3: Strengthen expertise and leadership around women and children with complex needs, from a trauma-informed, harm reduction and accessibility framework.
Our role in the community is a demanding one and other VAW organizations frequently look to us for information, guidance and expertise. It is time we positioned ourselves as the leader in the VAW and shelter network. Through actively engaging in robust training and healthy discussions we are strengthening the expertise of everyone working at Nellie’s to boost their leadership role from a trauma-informed, harm reduction and accessibility perspective. Ultimately, we want to not only be a leader but to formalize our service delivery model to promote, share and teach others in the sector as well.
Thank you.
Donna Kellway and Sherece Taffe,
Co-Chairs, Nellie’s Board of Directors
