By Michael Gorman
THE VANGUARD
NovaNewsNow.com
After 25 years of service to the area, officials at Juniper House continue to look for ways to expand and develop their services in the community.
Lisa Newell, executive director at the transition home on Seminary Street, says that as services expand their focus remains locked on women and children trying to escape abusive situations.
In the last year 4,063 people accessed Juniper House’s services in person and 2,670 people accessed them by phone. These numbers are for the Yarmouth location as well as the outreach locations in Digby and Shelburne and can range from the most desperate levels of need to simply stopping in for a conversation.
The 15-bed facility, which operates 24 hours a day, has seen its catchment area expend through the years to include the tri-counties and its services expand to include more youth-oriented services since opening in 1985.
Newell says this is important because children are often in just as much need for services as women when they arrive.
“We have a children and youth worker who is here to work with children whose families have experienced abuse,” says Newell.
They’ve also expanded their outreach services, meaning there are people to accompany women to legal appointments, get them to counselling or any other appointment they might have.
“Women don’t necessarily need to be staying at the shelter to received our services.”
Part of the increased services for children was the creation of a free day camp that started in 2003.
The camp, which is free of charge and open to children aged six to 11, operates for seven weeks each summer and runs this summer until the end of August.
Anne Robbins, the children's services worker at Juniper House, says the camp was originally started so that children staying at Juniper House could have some normalcy through the summer, however the camp was soon expanded to include any children in the community.
Besides offering traditional activities such as trips to museums, galleries and community events, the camp also includes activities that focus on positive relationship building, self-esteem and messages of anti bullying. Healthy snacks and lunch are also provided.
“We wanted the children to be able to have an opportunity to just be kids while learning ways to deal with angry feelings or low self esteem,” says Robbins.
Camp spots are offered on a first-come-first-served basis. Campers can be registered by calling 742-8689. Each session has 10-12 spots to ensure the lowest camper-to-staffer ratio possible.
As Juniper House continues to offer these and other services, they always do so with one eye on the bottom line. Although transition homes just received their first increase in operational funding from the province in 10 years, Newell says they still must be aware of finances as they try to meet the needs of the community.
This is where the group has benefitted so greatly from the generosity of the community, she says.
“We receive a great deal of support from the community. We are able to do a lot of our work through our community support, through community partners. (But) there’s always going to be the need. We do have a very large catchment area.”
As has been the case since the facility opened 25 years ago, Newell says no two situations are alike and there’s no way to really classify who is using their services.
People accessing their services range in age from 15 to 75. “We’ve had everything in between,” says Newell. “There really isn’t a specific demographic that we’re speaking to, there isn’t a specific profile that we’re speaking to.”
That said, one change they are beginning to see is a better awareness amongst young people when it comes to abusive relationships; the fact that they are wrong and the fact that people shouldn’t stay in them.
“With the younger generation it does seem that perhaps the message is getting out there a bit and women don’t feel that they have to stay, they know that there are other options. But in saying that, there’s always those who don’t feel that they can (leave).”
Influencing factors can include children, employment and finances when a women tries to leave an abusive situation, says Newell. All they can do is ensure the services are in place for when a woman makes the decision to leave.
“There are a lot of barriers still to women leaving abusive relationships and I don’t know that we’ll ever fully see that alleviated,” says Newell, “but we’re always looking at new ways to address that.”
