STAYING IN THE SHELTER - What is it like?

We aim to make the shelter feel as close to an ordinary home as possible. 

Our shelter consists of 2 x 2 bedroom villas, and 1 x 6 bedroom home. 

Each family accommodates 1 secure bedroom.

Residents agree to the conditions of stay, which are designed to promote safety, harmony and security for  past, present and future residents and staff. 

Residents attend regular house meetings which helps to maintain a stable home, discuss shared cleaning rosters and resolve any issues. 

Case workers and residents work together to develop case plans to meet individual needs. 

Areas specifically addressed are, safety and housing support as 1st priority, and other areas may be referrals for financial, medical, counselling, parenting support. 

Due to the nature of our staffing, we are presently unable to support women with un-managed drug and/or alcohol addictions, current drug usage or un-managed mental health issues.

Some of the support you can receive at the shelter:

• Temporary supported shelter accommodation with case workers as well as specific children’s case workers for children
• Information and referral assistance to access housing support, and advocacy to obtain rentals and other long term housing options
• Promotion of good health and wellbeing 
• Life skills to encourage independence and self-esteem
• Crisis support and referrals as needed including counselling, medical, legal aid, court support, financial planning, parenting support and mothers’ groups
• Community education and development
• Assistance in managing challenges faced by children in crisis
• Individual client-centred case management plans
• Outreach support after shelter stay 

We have specialist Children's Case workers who work alongside the parents to support the ever changing needs of the children in shelter.

Together we will work toward agreed goals to improve outcomes for children affected by domestic violence and homelessness in the Great Lakes.

We currently receive a small amount of funds towards our child support program, therefore we only have limited capacity for staff to work with and support the children who come through the shelter to decrease the impact of the trauma they have experienced. 

We offer individualised school holiday programs where possible and a range of support and development activities for the children during their stay. 

We aim to enrich the lives of each child throughout their stay, meeting health outcomes, decreasing impacts of trauma and have fun while we do it.

We offer a crisis outreach support program to women and children in our community, who identify that they need support for domestic or family violence, homelessness and/or the multitude of factors that result from those issues.

Outreach support can be provided while you wait for a room to become available in shelter, or if you are not in need of accommodation, outreach can still be provided to help you to get through your crisis situation.

We also continue to offer outreach support to families after they move out of shelter, to support them through the challenges of healing and starting over after homelessness and experiencing domestic violence.

We aim to improve self-esteem and to empower each woman and child throughout all of our programs.