Sudbury Women’s Centre plans to expand transitional housing services
New steps to expand services were drawn with Cambrian College
Sudbury Women’s Centre says it plans to expand transitional services for women fleeing domestic violence.
The research, done in partnership with Cambrian College’s Research and Development, lays out a number of models of transitional housing.
The services would offer 24/7 emergency crisis assistance, food shelves and a site that could provide child care and case workers.
“We needed research. We needed somewhere to start,” said Giulia Carpenter, executive director of the Sudbury Women’s Centre.
The Women’s Centre reached out to Cambridge for student researchers to help address the needs of transitional housing, she added.
“It gave us a really good look of variety of different models, different pathways, and some design ideas that we can do when the time comes that we make a decision and start looking for funding and partnerships for that.”
According to Carpenter, a bulk of the research included meetings between her staff and Cambrian’s research students.
The research and development team looked at various transitional housing models from other organizations in Canada. The information was compiled into a detailed list of goals the Sudbury Women’s Centre could act on once they secured funding.
One of the goals included a “dream design” concept site that could be a safe space for women survivors, Carpenter said.
“It would have residents on one side of the build with a courtyard in the middle and on the other side would be services and a possible social enterprise aspect,” she said.
The hub would include accessible services including open spaces, child minding training facilities and offices to discuss transitional services.
Cody Cacciotti, business developer for Cambrian Research and Development, said the project is a detour from mining sector to social services.
“What we’re looking to get out of this is obviously just be present in the community,” Cacciotti said.
Over a handful of Cambrian students joined the research and development team to lay out plans for on-site child care, crisis assistance programs and transitional housing services, he added.
“Not everything we do needs to be in heavy industry, that we are capable of servicing a number of different sectors.
“We can stretch our legs as a research department and help a lot of sectors across the city here.”