Photo of: Greenall Students participated in the walk – Greenall Equity Team
Photo By: Danielle Dufour
The sun was shining for the YWCA 10th anniversary Walk a Mile in Their Shoes fundraiser event which brought over 400 community members together to support the Isabel Johnson Shelter in Regina.
“Lots of folks in red shoes, joining us to raise awareness for domestic violence,” said Chelsey Lemky Senior Director of Development with the YWCA. “We have eight individuals who signed up to be soul champions this year, these individuals each committed to raising $10,000. We’re going to celebrate them today.”
Lemky said they expect to raise approximately $100,000 from the fundraiser.
“This is such an awesome event and such an important cause,” said Mayor Chad Bachynski. “The YWCA does so much good work around the community supporting women and for us to walk together to make sure that people feel heard, feel valued and feel confident if they can step forward, they will have the supports.”
The YWCA Isabel Johnson Shelter is one of three emergency domestic violence shelters in Regina supporting women and children.
“Not only does that (the funds) support Isabel Johnson rooms, but what we try and do here is we know we can’t accommodate all the needs that we have in the community for intimate partner violence and gender-based violence, so we work really hard at reducing the need for shelter beds in the first place,” said Lemky. “The funds raised go to support our services, and our diversion, our rapid rehousing teams in order to ensure the need for crisis beds is actually reduced.”
Saskatchewan continues to lead with the highest rates of intimate partner violence in Canada where Indigenous women are 12 times more likely to go missing or be killed.
Women and children usually stay at the shelter for about three weeks in duration.
“We typically have around a 1000 folks in our emergency shelter space between women and kids,” said Lemky. “Our turn aways are around 1000 a year, but we’ve seen that number significantly decline each year for the last three years.”
Bryan Rice the Chief Impact Officer at the YWCA Regina said, “We’re always looking at expanding the capacity, and we’re trying to build partnerships inside of the government and locally with fundraisers and other non-profits and meet the needs collectively in the community.”
Lemky noted that while individuals are staying at the shelter, the staff work on creating safety plans with them.
“When somebody leaves a DV (domestic violence) situation, they’re not likely taking their identification or bank card. They might not even have a bank account in their name,” said Lemky. “There are lots of steps that our team works with women on to get the set up to even be able to start thinking about renting an apartment on their own, or to get their child tax (benefit) in their name.”
The YWCA is also focussed on providing an education piece to bring awareness of domestic violence.
The shelter’s team focuses on ensuring individuals are stable and housed and their children are safe and able to attend school with everything they may need.
Photo By: Danielle Dufour
Lindsay Spinks, a participant attending the event said, “I brought a bunch of big burly men with me…who usually turn big wrenches with me, and they’ll be wearing some heels to walk out today.”
Spinks attended the event with the Finning Regina team, a local Caterpillar dealership. This is the fourth year they’ve participated in the walk.
“It’s important for us to be here and participate, not only because Finning is a vocal supporter of being the change we wish to see in the world, but also we shouldn’t have to have events like this, and the more events we participate in is the likelier that we don’t have them in the future,” said Spinks.
Adina Wiebe with Greenall High School attended along with 12 students to participate in the walk for the third year. Their team is the Greenall Equity Team.
Wiebe said that she brought the students out to help them understand “that domestic violence happens often, and we can make a difference here.”