Cowichan Women Against Violence Society

Hey! Anyone out there want to celebrate International Women's Day with an incredible movie night? This Saturday, March 6th, at 5PM west coast time, there is a showing of the Secret Marathon. You can check out the trailer here for free, or buy a ticket to watch on your Chrome browser, along with the Ladies Out Loud from Airdrie Alberta!! (Yup, Cowichan Women Against Violence Society is connected to Ladies out Loud - it's a family thing :)) Happy International Women's Day WEEK everyone!! https://www.facebook.com/144597709053309/posts/1755503164629414/?d=n

Pink Shirt Day was last week, but bullying happens everywhere, everyday, including at schools, workplaces, homes, community, institutions and online. Let's make everyday pink shirt day, where we lift each other up and grow kindness and equity.

Update: Thank you everyone!!! We have a plow at the shelter now. Hugely and greatly appreciated! We would love to know who helped us out so we can say thank you! ... Seeking help! Our road to the Women's Shelter is snowed in, and our staff are unable to enter or leave. This is also causing a lot of challenges for our women on foot getting down the long drive way in the snow. Wondering if there is any fabulous community people with a snow plow who could volunteer a bit of time and help us out? The women's shelter is located in the old baseball field by VIU - the old blue concession stand off the roundabout on University Way if there's anyone in the area who could help us out. Thank you so much!!

February is Black History Month and Cowichan Women Against Violence Society is excited to see that VIU is hosting Lillian Allen, awesome dub poet, and VIU’s 2020-21 Gustafson Distinguished Poet. Click through the link to register for the Feb 10 and Feb 11 events!! facebook.com/events/812156129334402/ Dub poetry emerged out of the 1960s Jamaican reggae scene to articulate the joy and protest of Black people. Canadian poet Lillian Allen is the godmother of dub, and was at the forefront of that international movement. Allen, who continues to innovate in poetry and creative writing pedagogy, has been chosen as Vancouver Island University’s (VIU’s) 2020-21 Gustafson Distinguished Poet. She will give the Gustafson Lecture on February 11, 2021. https://news.viu.ca/juno-award-winning-dub-poet-lillian-all.

Huge thanks, admiration and respect for the Cowichan Intercultural Society #istandwithcowichantribes Anti-Racism Car Rally & Virtual Panel event. I was so moved by the Quw'utsun Panel and learned so much about the history of racism and anti-racism in this Valley. I am reminded of the essential work that each of us much do ~ to examine and reflect upon our own unconscious biases and racism that we carry, simply from living in systems based in racism. With one heart, one mind, we express our deep condolences for the recent loss in the Quw'utsun community due to the COVID virus. https://cowichantribes.com//Cowichan_Tribes_Media_Statemen

Hi are you hoping to find some self-care gifts for your loved ones? Check out Carley's Wildgold Botanicals for some special gifts . If you try her Liquid Gold botanical, Carley will donate $5 to Cowichan Women Against Violence Society!!! Thank you ~

Please take a moment to read this poem written by a client of the Stopping the VIolence Counselling Program @ Cowichan Women Against Violence Society. Thank you! Oh ~ and Happy Solstice :) The promise of the Sunrise I had a dream the other night... I dreamt that things would soon be all right At the end of the tunnel there is still a light If I can just keep it in sight I dreamt that I lived in the world free from pain Where there's always a rainbow along with the rain Where gifts are given with nothing to gain A world with little about which to complain But somewhere in the middle I had to realise The dream would soon end and I'd open my eyes In the morning the world will be still full of lies Nothing would change with the sunrise I live in a realm I cannot explain A place where peace, I can't seem to gain I teeter and waiver on the edge of this domain Striving so earnestly a balance to maintain In this world there are people I truly despise It doesn't seem to matter how I moralise What they did, it was wrong.... it won't be disguised For their actions.... there will be no prize So every morning I climb out of bed I try to focus on the sunrise instead I file all the pain away in my head And I pray And I strive For the promise of what lies ahead

The Women's Night Shelter has up to 200 women who access referrals and supports over the year but only eight can sleep in the shelter overnight. So there is a huge gap, and a huge need, so we are working with our funding partners to address that need. Cowichan Women Against Violence Society is grateful to the United Way Central & Northern Vancouver Island for their support of our work with some of the most vulnerable women in the Valley. Thank you United Way! https://www.uwcnvi.ca//women-find-stability-united-way-sup

Great big huge heartfelt thank you to Judy Bobke and Shawnigan Lake Events, News, Links, Community Forum and Community. We are all completely blown away by the amazing beautiful new backpacks filled with all kinds of goodies including headphones, pajamas, leggings, giftcards, makeup and all sorts of other treats and goodies. We are all so excited for Christmas morning to gift these to our wonderful shelter clients.

The shelter needs your help! - Winterizing renovations for client common/programming space Thank you so much to everyone again for your continued support for our shelter and programs. As many of you are aware, we have made incredible strides in reinventing our shelter physical space since COVID-19. But, we feel like our work is not done, and we desperately need your support! ... Challenging as the pandemic has been, it has also provided us with some incredible gifts in overhauling our services. We have been able to reopen the shelter by adding partitions creating individual sleeping spaces for our women and moving to 24/7 services, however we still face the challenge of not having a functional common area for clients to socialise or congregate in due to social distancing requirements. Our women are thriving in their new environment, however we feel they would benefit so much more from safe spaces for programming, support functions and peer socialisation, enhancing the sense of community, connection and resourcing in our respite space. How do we intend to do this? Attached to our building is a substantial outdoor breezeway which is currently enclosed with a chainlink fence. This area is heavily used and loved by our clients as it provides a safe and enclosed outdoor area, however it leaves our clients highly visible from outside people looking in, and also offers absolutely no protection from heavy wind and rain, and it's very cold out there in the winter time! We would like to enclose the outdoor space to offer some weather protection so that this area can be repurposed into an outdoor common 'living space' for clients to socialise in and participate in group activities, life skills programming, support functions, as well as offer privacy from outsiders looking in. If we can get the funds we would also like to build a small meditation/spiritual space in the breezeway that can be used for women who are seeking quiet, a place to meditate, smudge, pray, or just needing time and space to de-escalate their emotions. How much will this cost? Our design and estimate for the build is complete, and has us anticipating about $5,500 in cost and materials - which is where we are asking for community help. Any donations at all are greatly appreciated and can be made through Facebook, our Canada Helps page, or in person at the CWAV office. https://www.canadahelps.org//cowichan-women-against-viole/

THANK YOU so much to everyone who was able to contribute to the upgrades to the Women's Night Shelter!!!! The support has been incredible and we are so grateful. Keep an eye out for further developments ~ CWAV is designing further "winterizing" of the Shelter and we will keep you informed!!!!

Deb Monkman is a retired health and social services librarian who worked in hospitals and social service agencies throughout her career. Deb is a treasured donor who has found a wonderful way to support CWAV's work!! "I was the librarian with the BC Society of Transition Houses in Vancouver for many years, providing online resources and book loans to all of their member agencies, including to Cowichan Women Against Violence Society. When I retired and moved to #cowichanvalley..., I decided that instead of buying Christmas presents that we really don't need in our household, I would use our Christmas budget and offer to buy books for the children's program at CWAV Society. Cheryl sends me a wish list of topics or suggestions of particular books, and she trusts me to select the best books I can find so that she can have an assortment of current resources. I believe this is the fourth year I've done this, but I'd have to check. I get the joy of discovering and buying books, especially children's books which are so great to read for all ages, and I try to support our local booksellers like Volume One in Duncan. It's a win win for everyone." From all of us at Cowichan Women Against Violence Society ~ thank you Deb for your thoughtful generosity!! See more

December 10 is International Human Rights Day https://www.un.org/en/observances/human-rights-day, and in honour of this we want to share this Japanese Anti-Sexual Violence Ad #ActiveBystander. The privately made ad aims to enlist the help of onlookers to change Japan’s permissive approach to sexual violence toward women. May we all take action to keep women safe ~ in their homes and in their communities ~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZv4QhOx9UA&feature=youtu.be

Thank you to the Discourse for this article on the COVID upgrades for the Women's Night Shelter! And Adria, you and your team are awesome!!!! Thank you for your dedication to women of the Cowichan Valley https://thediscourse.ca/cowicha/cwav-womens-shelter-reopens

As many of us in the world experienced, COVID-19 was crushing for our women's night shelter and clients. Due to poor building infrastructure and staffing challenges we had no choice but to close down the shelter at the end of March. The few remaining staff continued to come in twice a day to provide meals and what services and supplies we could through the door. We helped clients set up and take down their tents every day around the shelter until we were able to set up our sa...nctioned tenting site in the CVRD parking lot in cooperation with the Cowichan Housing Association’s task force. I remember so well the initial overwhelming defeat I felt at putting our most vulnerable women in tents in an exposed parking lot. It was the best we could do, but at the same time felt like we should be doing so much more for our women who are desperately needing safety and stability. Yet the change that happened was remarkable. The tents provided our women with autonomy and privacy for the first time. They were able to come and go from the tent site, or go in their tent and close their door when they needed privacy. As the site was 24/7, outreach services were able to come to the tent site to provide services. Clients found themselves with time and space to settle and start some recreational hobbies during the summer we had the most incredible green space within the tent site, completely transforming the bare concrete parking lot. This was a vast difference to typical night shelters where clients all congregate in one large common area and need to remain on guard throughout a stay to guard their belongings, guard their safety and self in an open room with 15 other individuals they may or may not know. So it has been truly incredible to see the transformation of our open physical space into individual private sleeping spaces, especially as we are now shifting from a night shelter to 24/7 services. A huge, warm, and heartfelt thank you to Peter Wilson from DIV1 Projects Ltd for his consultation, design, and build of our new shelter sleeping spaces for our women. Once again we are blown away by thoughtful engagement and generosity from community members to help lift our women towards dignity, and safety. We absolutely could not provide the services we do without the generosity from our community members. Please consider donating now (www.cwav.org) to support the renovation of the women’s night shelter. Thank you so much from the whole team at the shelter and CWAV. We wish you a Happy Thanksgiving.

A HUGE shout out to Crystal and her incredible work on the Fall Flow Fashion Fundraiser for CWAV!!! With Crystal's hard work and drive to bring in support from her friends, family, local business and faith community ~ wow!!! What a successful third-party event. We our so grateful Crystal ~ thank you from all of the team at CWAV!!

Garage Sale is here!! Come on over to view our selections up for grabs.

Hello friends ~ Somenos House is looking for a few sunhats for our residents. Not ball caps please - just a few hats with brims. If anyone can help us out with that, please call to arrange drop-off. 250-748-7000. Thank you!!!

Save the Date! And reserve your ticket soon :)

Somenos Transition House is hiring relief staff! Responsibilities: 1) Provide in person and phone crisis counselling and practical support for women and children impacted by family violence 2) Participate in the daily tasks to support program operations... 3) Work collaboratively and contribute to the health of the staff team Requirements: - In-depth understanding of the dynamics and impacts of violence against women. - Knowledge and experience with a client-centred, trauma informed approach to crisis support. - Strong crisis support skills for working with women who use substances and/or have mental health challenges. - Ability to develop and nurture relationships across diverse cultures and support their protocols, beliefs and traditions. - A combination of direct related experience and relevant training and education. - be flexible, self-directed; reliable; able to work both independently and collaboratively. - Valid Class 5 driver's license. - Current 1st Aid Certification (Emergency with child & adult CPR) - Satisfactory criminal records check. - Solid availability for short call shift work (see below). - Close proximity to Duncan. Availability: We require a commitment to keep strong availability for shifts Monday through Friday. Day shift is 8 am - 4 pm; Bridging shift is 11 - 7 pm; Afternoon shift is 3:15 - 11:15 pm; Overnight shift is 10:30 pm - 8:30 am. As a casual position, the frequency of shifts is dependent on regular staff absence (i.e. vacation, sick). This position would combine well with retirement, a regular part time or casual position elsewhere. If you are looking for full time work, this please do not apply. Please send your resume to [email protected] along with: 1) a cover letter telling us a bit about yourself 2) details about your availability (as per above info) Only short-listed applicants will be contacted. Somenos House encourages applicants who may contribute or expand our capacity to serve the broad diversities of our communities.