A former Olds resident who escaped an environment of domestic violence said having a shelter for women and children in this community could help others avoid some of the anguish she experienced.
The woman, who asked not to be identified due to safety concerns, said she went to police after her husband threatened her life.
Although she was given a police escort out of town and victims services helped her reach a shelter in Red Deer, the woman said it was “pretty scary” not to have a closer facility to take her in.
“Red Deer is still a 40-minute drive. Emotionally, you're a mess to try to get yourself there,” she said. “If I didn't have victims services to drive me that particular night that I left, I couldn't have done it. I was emotionally just a wreck. I would have been dangerous on the road for myself and others.”
A shelter in Olds, the woman added, would allow a victim to slip out of her home easily and on short notice rather than having to arrange transport to a shelter outside the community.
“I think it would benefit them tremendously in that I think more people would get out of the situation sooner if there was a shelter right there in downtown Olds or something, rather than going to Calgary or Red Deer to seek that help.”
Bob Phillips, president of the Olds Emergency Shelter Society, an organization that formed in 2006 and is working to build a shelter for those fleeing domestic violence here, said the society is aiming to open a shelter in Olds next year.
The society's vision, he added, is to build a facility that can accommodate four to six adults, plus any children who come along with them, at any given time.
At the moment, the society is still looking to find a location for the facility and is fundraising and seeking grants for the project, said Phillips, who is also a retired Olds RCMP detachment commander.
Without a shelter to house those people escaping domestic violence in the community, he said, victims are often forced to re-enter the environment they were fleeing from.
Chinook Arch Victims Services will seek out “safe, secure environments” for people in need of a shelter and these may include shelters in other communities or even hotels, Phillips added.
But other shelters are often full, especially since domestic violence activity is on the rise, he said.
“The number of domestic violence cases in this community and regionally is on the increase so therefore the demand is greater than it ever has been, even in my day.”
And, he added, the resources used to accommodate people needing shelter or to move them out of town has increased “phenomenally” over the years, which is taxing on the police and victim services agencies.
“So the demand for shelters has increased around the province, not just here.
It's long overdue.”
Rhonda Kearns, a court coordinator for Chinook Arch Victims Services, said the number of domestic violence files the Olds RCMP has opened in 2013 as of the beginning of November was 96, with Didsbury having 91 and Sundre having 86.
Part of the reason for the higher number of domestic violence files, she added, is that people are reporting to police more.
“It's not just swept underneath the carpet and people know it's OK to come forward, that there's options,” she said. “In the past, people just rode it out because they didn't really feel there were any options out there for them.”
The good news, Kearns said, is that Olds is actually working towards addressing the problem.
“We're actually ahead of a lot of communities our size in recognizing that there is a need for a shelter.”
Until a shelter is available for the greater Olds area, she added, people escaping domestic violence, which include men, are forced to leave the community, which can pull them away from their support systems and jobs and take children away from their schools.
“If we had something in our area, those children can still continue to go to school, mom can still work in the community, she can still carry on as normal,” Kearns said.
As for when she would like to see a shelter open here, Kearns said “The sooner the better” and added having a shelter here will actually be “empowering” for victims.
“All the resources that they need are there. It's like a one-stop shop, as opposed to right now, if we have to put them in a hotel, they're on their own.”
Phillips said the society has not yet finalized a plan for the proposed shelter and so the estimated cost of the project is not yet known and will depend on the location and if renovations are necessary to make an existing building secure.
While the society has received significant donations from a number of community groups and fundraising campaigns, Phillips declined to say how much money the society has raised so far, other than to report the society is still raising money.
Anyone who wants to make a donation to the project or learn more about the shelter concept can visit http://oldsemergencyshelter.com.
