SWEETGRASS FIRST NATION - Kanaweyimik Child & Family Services is opening up a number of Emergency Safe Homes to give First Nation families a place to stay when they are experiencing domestic violence.
The facilities will offer two services. A parent and their children escaping a domestic violence situation will have an emergency safe-place to stay in the basement of the home, while the upstairs portion of the residence will be used to house foster children under the care of a house-parent.
Last week an Emergency Safe Home was opened at Sweetgrass First Nation. Before that, a facility was opened at Mosquito, Grizzly Bear's Head, Lean Man (MGBHLM) First Nation. Next, a home will open at Saulteaux First Nation.
Kanaweyimik's executive director, Marlene Bugler, is excited with the initiative to give kids and families a place to stay when they don't have another recourse.
"We give them what they need at the moment, after they are stabilized a bit. Then, we figure out where they need to go from there," she told SaskToday. "In the domestic violence situation, it will be one of the parents that will be coming in with the kids. It will be the victim and the children coming in downstairs. It can accommodate the family."
Up to five foster children can stay upstairs, while downstairs a parent escaping domestic violence can have about five or six kids accommodated to keep the family together.
The project has been in the works for a couple of years. The Sweetgrass site still needs a bit of work outside to be complete.
"We've had some delays with the construction and the weather," Bugler said. "But we final got it to the point where we could open the house. We still haven't finished the yard work because there is going to be a fence around it, so it's more secure, and with playground equipment."
The cost to build the Emergency Safe Home is about $800,000 on average for each of the three homes in the project.
"It's completely set up with furniture and bedding, all the things to get going," Bugler said. "It's funding we get from the federal government, and we just use prior year's dollars we haven't used."
Kanaweyimik received permission from the federal government to open the houses for the initiative.
Bugler noted for foster children, the Emergency Safe Home gives them an opportunity to stay together.
"Children need a safe place to go to," she said. "We're always phoning relatives, other foster homes [to ask] if they have space for one or two children. A lot of times they need to go to different homes because of space. This way a sibling group of up to five can go to the same house."
For families from situations of domestic violence, there was also a great need for these emergency homes.
"I think it's a big issue not only in First Nations, but all over the place," Bugler said. "And, there is limited resources in the Battlefords. There is only one Interval House. When that is full, there is really nowhere for families to go. We would spend money putting them up in hotels, supporting them in hotels until we come up for a plan for them. Now they will have a place to go to."
