SOURCE: http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/2013/05/28/sex-trade-workers-shelter-given-400k-grant
More services are on the way for Vancouver sex-trade workers after city council voted in favour of a $400,000 grant to expand a Downtown Eastside women’s shelter.
Council approved the plan Tuesday, which would consolidate the WISH Drop-In Centre’s administrative office on West Pender with the shelter site on Alexander Street, near Gore Avenue.
The current offices are subject to higher rental rates than the shelter and money saved in the move would go towards additional support services, according to WISH director Kate Gibson.
“To (move) there means that we will have much more support for the women and the programming that goes on,” she told council.
“It will give us more space (and) we’ll be able to take the money we have to pay for those programs and rent (at the administrative offices) and we will be able to apply it to the programs themselves.”
Gibson said the savings would go towards an expanded aboriginal women’s program, and additional harm-reduction services, such as condom distribution.
One recommendation from the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry report released last fall called on the province to fund shelters that could provide 24-hour support services for sex-trade workers.
Justice Minister Shirley Bond pledged $750,000 to expand operations at WISH after the report was released. That particular grant, however, was only enough to expand the drop-in centre’s operations from five hours to 17 hours a day.
The consolidated facility is directly next door to the current shelter and once served as the evidence warehouse for the Vancouver Police Department.
The expanded building would nearly double the shelter’s size to 7,000 square feet.
1 comment on the page along with the article
"Dr.Larry Falls
It's a good start but much more help is needed. On a rainy 3 a.m. tread, I see some of these women sometimes new and young standing in the rain, cold, wet and often desperate for help. I get a friendly smile or "hello." In this case I understand full well it is not all about the sex trade business, It's about the wanting for inclusion as human beings, compassion, and help"
More services are on the way for Vancouver sex-trade workers after city council voted in favour of a $400,000 grant to expand a Downtown Eastside women’s shelter.
Council approved the plan Tuesday, which would consolidate the WISH Drop-In Centre’s administrative office on West Pender with the shelter site on Alexander Street, near Gore Avenue.
The current offices are subject to higher rental rates than the shelter and money saved in the move would go towards additional support services, according to WISH director Kate Gibson.
“To (move) there means that we will have much more support for the women and the programming that goes on,” she told council.
“It will give us more space (and) we’ll be able to take the money we have to pay for those programs and rent (at the administrative offices) and we will be able to apply it to the programs themselves.”
Gibson said the savings would go towards an expanded aboriginal women’s program, and additional harm-reduction services, such as condom distribution.
One recommendation from the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry report released last fall called on the province to fund shelters that could provide 24-hour support services for sex-trade workers.
Justice Minister Shirley Bond pledged $750,000 to expand operations at WISH after the report was released. That particular grant, however, was only enough to expand the drop-in centre’s operations from five hours to 17 hours a day.
The consolidated facility is directly next door to the current shelter and once served as the evidence warehouse for the Vancouver Police Department.
The expanded building would nearly double the shelter’s size to 7,000 square feet.
1 comment on the page along with the article
"Dr.Larry Falls
It's a good start but much more help is needed. On a rainy 3 a.m. tread, I see some of these women sometimes new and young standing in the rain, cold, wet and often desperate for help. I get a friendly smile or "hello." In this case I understand full well it is not all about the sex trade business, It's about the wanting for inclusion as human beings, compassion, and help"
