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Posts Tagged ‘ontario’

Introducing our new substance use and addiction program

Posted on: October 26th, 2023 by Nellie's No Comments

IMG-20231012-WA0005As we work toward a future free of gender-based violence, here at Nellie’s we’ve been working to build new ways for us to better support our community of women and their children fleeing violence, trauma, and homelessness. And thanks to a financial contribution from Health Canada, we’re currently developing a brand-new substance use program to provide even more women with the help they need.

There’s a major intersectionality between substance use and violence against women — an average of 63% of women seeking assistance with violence issues are also struggling with substance abuse. Many women in addiction recovery also report experiencing some form of abuse in their lifetime. But until now, there’s been a lack of holistic support for women in need of both of these services.

Enter our new substance use program, which aims to increase the knowledge of and build additional capacity for harm reduction services within violence against women shelters. Toni-Ann Allen, Nellie’s Substance Use and Addictions supervisor, has been tasked with creating this expansive program, which she recently launched with a presentation to the Violence Against Women Network (VAWN) about how the program will be integrated across all women’s shelters within VAWN.

Although the program is being developed at Nellie’s, the goal is to create a standardized practice within all VAWN women’s shelters to address and support individuals who are experiencing both gender-based violence and substance abuse. Toni-Ann is working on building this program from scratch, and she’s currently in the research stage and working on building out the assessment framework. “The assessments will help us evaluate and see where each organization is currently at with substance use, addictions, and harm reduction within their shelter,” explains Toni-Ann. “Once all the assessments are finished, I’ll take all the information and then give each shelter feedback.” Working alongside Toni-Ann are peer volunteers who have lived experience with gender-based violence or substance use — they’ll be providing feedback on all steps of the process, as well as joining Toni-Ann on the in-shelter assessments starting in January.

After Toni-Ann and her team finish completing the assessments and providing feedback, the next step will be to provide essential training to frontline shelter workers to help them better support their shelter residents. “Because of this intersectionality [of women experiencing substance use and gender-based violence], we’re finding that individuals aren’t accessing services as they should, and it’s creating barriers for women,” says Toni-Ann. “We want to bridge that gap and prepare the workers and VAW shelters to deal with this complex issue.”

Another element of the program that Toni-Ann is looking forward to exploring is how nutrition can be used as a form of harm reduction. “I don’t believe there’s enough conversation around nutrition and how it helps individuals who use substances, wherever they may be in their journey,” explains Toni-Ann. “From a community standpoint and a harm reduction standpoint, I haven’t seen that — so that’s really exciting.”

We’re proud to be starting this innovative and transformative program, and we’re eager to soon be supporting the women at Nellie’s even more effectively. Our goal is that the impact of this program goes far beyond the direct support we provide to our clients — it’s also about challenging the stigma surrounding substance use and harm reduction. “I think it will change a lot within the community, and I think it will change perceptions on harm reduction and substance abuse,” says Toni-Ann.

Countdown to the Provincial Election: What YOU can do

Posted on: September 27th, 2011 by Nellie's No Comments

The Step it Up Campaign is a coalition of women’s networks, organizations, groups, and individuals who want to see “better, faster government action to end violence against women. ”  Created in 2006, the goal of Step it Up is to urge all political parties to take a firm stance against violence against women and to include a concrete action plan in their election platforms.

To encourage this process, the Step it Up Campaign has developed a Platform for Parties for the upcoming election on October 6th.  This platform includes recommendations on areas such as accessibility, poverty, housing, education, access to childcare, and funding for women’s services.

Step it Up is asking for Ontario voters to present this platform to their local candidates and ask them what they are doing to end violence against women.  We were so fortunate to have Anna Willats from Step it Up speak at our “Women Vote 2011” election forum earlier this month.  Please visit www.stepitupontario.ca for more information and resources.

Nellie’s hosts “Women Vote 2011” election forum

Posted on: September 22nd, 2011 by Nellie's No Comments

Do you know what time the polls open on Ontario’s Election Day?  Or which party has the most female candidates?  On September 13th, these and other questions were answered across the Grand Ballroom at 519 Church Street Community Centre during Nellie’s “Women Vote 2011” election forum.  The women and children who use our services were invited to learn more about the issues that will effect their lives in the upcoming Provincial election.

Women participated in an Election Game and excitedly answered questions about the different parties and their platforms.  Special speakers shared their wisdom about election issues and challenged and informed us.  Dinh Ngo, from S.E.A.S Centre spoke in Cantonese about election issues facing East Asian communities.  Anna Willats from the Step it Up! Campaign talked about important questions we could ask the candidates about ending violence against women.

(Dinh Ngo from S.E.A.S and Anna Willats from Step it Up with our Election Game spinner!)

The night ended with a thought-provoking Question & Answer session and a big thank-you to all the staff, volunteers, and speakers who helped to make the event a success.

The election happens on Thursday October 6th.   Don’t forget to vote and keep checking our blog every tuesday until then as we highlight important election issues and initiatives.

(Answers to the 2 questions: Polls open at 9am on election day and the Liberal Party has the most female candidates).

Countdown to the Provincial Election: What YOU can do!

Posted on: September 13th, 2011 by Nellie's No Comments

The 25 in 5 Network for Poverty Reduction  is calling on all provincial political parties to make poverty reduction a key election issue this fall.

In their recently released statement “A Call to Action on Poverty in Ontario”, they say:

“As the October provincial election approaches, we call on all Ontario political parties to make the reduction and eradication of poverty a key election issue and to clearly outline their commitments and concrete plans to tackle poverty in our province.”

Many of the women and children who come to Nellie’s are not only leaving situations  of abuse, but of poverty and homelessness as well.   The Toronto Community Foundation reported in their 2010 Vital Signs report that “almost one quarter (23.4%) of children in female lone-parents families were living in poverty in 2008.”

As countless social service agencies around the city see their demand for services increase and their financial capacity to provide these services threatened by funding cuts, it is of utmost importance that the government we elect takes a serious and progressive stance on tackling poverty. 

Please check out http://25in5.ca  for more information on how you can get involved.