PHOTOS: First step to safety for women and children around Melfort

However, not having a safe place for women to stay has been hole in their services offered in Melfort, Nipawin, Tisdale, Naicam and rural areas, she said. “Many of the individuals we work with live rural and remote. To remove them to a city or remove them from their support systems, you remove them from their school, their work, all of those things, you retraumatize and cause isolation. Being able to have the services here, it allows them to stay in familiar surroundings, easier to pick up their lives afterwards.”

That’s why North East Outreach started talking to Melfort’s City Council in 2010 to find a location for a transition home, she explained.

Kevin Phillips was Melfort’s mayor at that time, and the following year was elected provincially as the MLA for Melfort. In a speech at the sod-turning, he explained that

Council issues with choosing the location for the shelter, which will be built at 128 McKendry Avenue West, just behind the Melfort Mall.

“There was a difference in agreement in the community over the zoning question. And we worked through that with the City Council,” Phillips said.

“[North East Outreach] kept track of the need and as they found there was a greater need they talked to the City, and went through the procedures there. And moved onto the provincial government, and I was fortunate enough to move on with them kind of thing,” Phillips said.

He added the non-profit was persistent in its efforts to see the shelter get funding.

“They lobbied very hard for provincial help, and it was great to see. It was hard to make a trip back from Regina without my phone ringing” with Schweitzer on the other line, he said.

On Friday, Phillips, Schweitzer, Melfort’s current mayor Rick Lang, federal representatives were all present to break ground on the project.In his speech, Phillips mentioned that the last transition shelter was built in 1989 in Swift Current.

Construction of the shelter will largely be funded by $1.5 million provided through the provincial and federal governments. They come through the Saskatchewan Housing Corporation and Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, with funds through the Canada-Saskatchewan Investment in Affordable Housing 2011-2014 Agreement.

A capital funding campaign will soon be underway in the community.

claskowski@panow.com

On Twitter: @chelsealaskowsk

by Chelsea Laskowski

PHOTOS: First step to safety for women and children around Melfort

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