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NOW
Canada
Society
History
Early
1998 – A street
level survey is conducted in
Kelowna
with sexually exploited youth from our community and province.
At this time, it is determined the number one need is for safe
housing for sexually-exploited female youth looking to exit the sex trade.
In response, a volunteer Board of Directors is elected in March
1998 and Servants Anonymous Society of Kelowna is founded based on the SAS
of Calgary model, which has been operating successfully since 1989.
July
1, 1998
– SAS Kelowna opens its first safe home for sexually exploited female
youth (between the ages of 15 and 29) with five beds and one emergency
bed. This home runs at or
above capacity from the second week it opens.
October
1, 1998
– A second safe home is opened with another five beds and one emergency
bed.
Spring
1999
– With 12 young clients in the residential program and no community
agency offering the kind of life-skills training SAS Kelowna clients
require, the Board of Directors looks into the ASK (Ask, Seek, Knowledge)
Learning Centre life skills program used by SAS Calgary and adopts the
same for Kelowna.
July
1, 1999
– The Kelowna SAS ASK Learning Centre opens.
The program includes life-skills, academics, career exploration,
relapse prevention, etc. Today,
this is a three-month program.
January
2000
– The Followcare Program is established to help ASK graduates become
self-sufficient. This is in
direct response to studies that found it takes an average of seven years
to successfully make a clean break from street life.
The Followcare Program, among other things, helps find
accommodation and furnishings, and provides guidance with job search and
education upgrading. At the
same time, SAS Kelowna does an internal review of programming and
discovers the need for trauma therapy, to allow clients to overcome past
traumatic life events that led them into street life, drug and/or alcohol
abuse and the sex trade.
August
2000
– SAS Kelowna develops and implements the Trauma Therapy Program.
But, as SAS Kelowna continues to grow to meet the needs of sexually
exploited youth, unfortunately so does the need.
A third safe house is opened with five beds and one emergency bed,
allowing for one Mom and Child Safe Home and two homes for participants
without children.
February
2002
– The society answers the #1 emergent need found in a federal
government-initiated homeless study and opens Alexandra Gardner Women and
Children Safe Centre, a 15-bed, low-barrier homeless shelter for women and
children. Today, the centre
operates with 20 beds and runs at full capacity.
It’s B.C.’s only low-barrier women and children’s homeless
shelter outside the Lower Mainland.
May 2002
– SAS Kelowna officially changes its name to New Opportunities for Women
(NOW) Canada Society to better reflect its mandate and opens NOW Place
Apartments, a 21-unit second-stage subsidized housing complex for ASK
Centre graduates and marginalized women from our community who have a
proven financial need.
November
2002
– NOW
Canada
is forced to close one of the single
participant safe homes after a
private donor withdraws a $100,000 funding commitment because of their own
financial predicament. The
board makes the decision to close the home, noting Alexandra Gardner Safe
Centre is available for short-term housing if necessary.
In the meantime, work gets underway to find funding to re-open the
six beds.
January
2003
– With lost funding, NOW Canada cancels its trauma therapy program, a
successful service that was initiated based on client feedback.
Recognizing the importance of trauma therapy, the society continues
to look for funding for this program, as well as for its safe homes.
March
2003 – NOW
Canada
purchases a residential safe home for moms with children in partnership
with the Rotary Clubs of Kelowna and BC Housing.
The home is called the Rotary Centennial Home.
May 2003 –
An Equine Therapy program is introduced for clients of the ASK
Learning Centre as part of dealing
with personal and behavioural issues.
July
2003 – NOW
Canada
introduces the Healthy Living Program as a successful pilot project with
Vancouver Foundation. The
program helps clients, who have proven a willingness to turn their lives
around, address emergency
needs (e.g. with rent, groceries, daycare, costs, etc) preventing clients
from turning out of desperation back to the streets to pay for basic needs
or to drugs as an escape.
July 2003 - NOW
Canada purchases a
second residential safe home for single parents in partnership with
Connection Drug Rehabilitation Society, Real Estate Foundation of BC and
BC Housing.
December 2003 -
A
Creative Healing Project for Families is introduced as a pilot project in
partnership with the United Way to promote healing for school aged
children of sexually exploited and homeless mothers. Play therapy
continues to be available to children of sexually exploited youth clients,
through the Healthy Living program.
February 2004
–
Fresh Food for Families program is implemented to provide groceries for
women and children in need of nutritional assistance. This program is now
part of Healthy Living
June 2004 - Funding for the Trauma Therapy program is secured thanks
to CKNW Orphan's fund, allowing the program to resume for clients under 19
years of age.
December 2004 –
NOW Canada leases a third residential safe home for single clients. As
well, the number of beds at the Alexandra Gardner Women and Children Safe
Centre (AGSC) is increased to 20 until March 31, 2005 due to the Safe
Centre having to turn away an average of 30 women and children each week.
January 2005 – The
BC Government funds up to 10 additional extreme weather beds at AGSC
during a peak cold weather period, with the option to re-open if the
extreme temperatures return. T
August 2005
– NOW
Canada
acquires land in
Rutland
with plans to build 40 units of affordable housing for women in the
community, with and without children, and to relocate its offices.
August 2006 – Based on a review of clientele accessing
NOW Canada’s Alexandra Gardner Women and Children Safe Centre, a Mental
Health Resource Partnership pilot project begins to ensure the growing
number of women and youth with mental health concurrent disorders receive
the appropriate supports and referrals they require to address their
issues more successfully.
The
project is funded by Vancouver Foundation and Regional District of Central
Okanagan. Today, these
valuable supports continue with funding from BC Housing and a partnership
with the Interior Health Authority’s Outreach Urban Health Centre.
August 2007 – BC Housing provides NOW Canada with
Proposal Development Funding to begin the necessary due diligence required
to develop the land in
Rutland
and to contract a development consultant and architect.
October
2007 – NOW
Canada
launches Yoga Therapy Program as a pilot project, aimed
at increasing clients’ physical and mental stability to ensure they stay
safe, free from violence and abuse, and focused on their recovery.
January 2008 – Renovations and upgrades at AGSC begin thanks to funding from BC Housing
NOW Canada’s Anonymous Donor and Sunrise Rotary.
Completed in November 2008. The
society’s safe homes are also set to undergo necessary renovations in
2009.
March
2008- Minister Rich Coleman and Mayor Sharon Shepherd announce that NOW
Canada has been chosen to build another 39 units of affordable housing on
Tutt Street
in
Kelowna
for women and children with a proven financial need.
March
2008 – MissionsNow09 announce local churches will come together to offer an
extreme makeover for NOW’s Alexandra Gardner Women and Children Safe
Centre.
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