New domestic violence centre for Edmonton

Community Action, March 20, 2008

Edmonton's planned Domestic Violence Centre will aim to help 3,000 Aboriginal and immigrant girls and women a year in a new building that is being designed. The planners estimate about "one third of these people will be in high-risk situations destined for the courts."

The centre will not be a women's shelter, one-stop aid where women and girls experiencing family violence can be guided to counselling and get help with police matters, find social and financial support Services will be provide on-site and in community based agencies. The centre will have a police officer on site. It will not be a women's shelter but will assist women and girls to find shelter where needed.

A collaborative effort the Centre is the product of a collaborative initiative of the eight groups who have worked together to create the agency, including the Edmonton Police Service, Catholic Social Services, the John Howard Society, the YWCA, Aboriginal Consulting Services of Alberta, city social services, Alberta Children's Services, and the RCMP

The federal government pledged $1.1 million for the development of the new centre within the framework of the Women's Partnership Fund of Status Other funders are expected to provide $6.6 million.

Public sector employment in Canada reached nearly 3.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2007, a gain of 2.5%, or 81,000, from the same quarter in 2006. It has been steadily increasing since 2000 after years of decline throughout the 1990s.