The name itself inspires hope and confidence. Optimism Place offers shelter and support service that addresses the intersection of violence and homelessness, and the fact that a woman’s experience of homelessness makes her more vulnerable to violence.
Over the past four years there have been so many shifts in our social fabric. Every system seems to be reaching critical mass. There is more complexity today than ever before. Economics are harder, making affordability a key issue, and along with financial abuse is heightened and more nuanced emotional abuse.
“For a lot of women to even recognize that there is coercive control in their relationship takes time,” said Jasmine Clarke, the executive director of Optimism Place.
Fortunately, there is better understanding today about the dynamics of domestic violence and abuse.
“It’s still a highly stigmatized issue and not generally well-understood, but there is increased awareness of the impacts,” Clarke said.
The services that Optimism Place provides reflect those issues, and enable an environment where women can get what they need, from practical support to emotional support.
In response to the current upward trend of demands, Optimism Place has undergone a major expansion to include more beds — an imperative for accepting those in need. Additionally, two key roles need to be filled: crisis counsellor and housing navigator.
“Sometimes people think the shelter is just a bed, but we are so much more than that, we really provide wrap-around support, in the areas of legal support, advocacy and children’s services,” she shared. “We have a full-time children’s advocate on staff, and we have a full-time transition and legal advocate as well.”
Shelter, counselling and group support are all components of this increasingly holistic approach to addressing a problem, while enabling the means to a solution. However, the solution is bigger than the shelter.
“We serve women,” Clarke said, “but we also have to do the work to make a difference with men.”
Emotional and financial abuse is not given the same credence as physical abuse, and it’s harder still to even provide evidence of it. One of the issues is, therefore, to address the root causes and ‘make that invisibility visible’.
Clarke acknowledges that a lot has to happen in order to prevent violence from occurring in the first place. One of the leading causes of homelessness for women is relationship-breakdown.
Focusing on prevention, working with young men, teens and boys is essential. The children’s service worker from Optimism Place works in all six high schools in Perth County to hold conversations around relationship literacy and communication; how to recognize unhealthy elements in relationships; teaching how to be assertive, and instilling in young boys a greater sense of empathy and understanding.
It’s a multi-faceted approach, and there is a philosophy underpinning it: shelters grew out of the women’s movement, and that is anchored in women’s equality.
“For anyone considering working here, that is a philosophical understanding that we all have,” she said.
Optimism Place is a first-stage emergency-response centre for crisis, with a crisis line and emergency shelter staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, every day of the year. For many women and their children, it’s the first safe place they’ve lived in. Their average length of stay is eight weeks, but this is determined by each individual woman’s specific needs to facilitate them onto a better path.
Legal support and children’s advocacy are followed by the Housing Navigator’s pivotal role in focusing on finding safe, secure, affordable housing for the women in the shelter, and managing their transition in conjunction with their legal advocacy.
The unique environment and immediate response are uniquely and immediately rewarding for those who work at the shelter. For people interested in filling the two key roles of Crisis Counselor and Housing Navigator, the best place to go to find detailed information is on the website: optimismplace.com. There are a lot of student placements as well.
“If people want to know more about the shelter in general, or if you’re curious about the position, feel free to give me a call – we’re recruiting,” said Clarke.
Since its inception in 1983, Optimism Place has been raising awareness of the cycle of abuse and violence through prevention, intervention, education and advocacy. It has been making a positive difference in the lives of countless women and children in Stratford, including non-binary and trans-women. By responding and adapting to the needs of women, Optimism Place continues to maintain a cherished and vital role in making our whole community a more optimistic place to be.
