Wanda McGinnis measures the success of her work in sobering terms: “A success is that nobody dies.”
For some, that description of their work might seem flippant, if not dramatic. For McGinnis, the executive director of Big Hill Haven (BHH), it's a stark reminder of the looming shadow hiding beneath the surface of every community.
Since 2016, Big Hill Haven has been supporting families and survivors of domestic violence in Cochrane. It’s an organization committed to not only support but prevention of domestic violence.
Like many similar organizations all over the country, Big Hill Haven faces its fair share of obstacles, whether it be access to funding, physical shelter space, or getting the word out that there is something in people’s communities that can help them as they navigate a very difficult period of their lives.
Earlier this year the Alberta Council of Women’s Shelters (ACWS) released its 2023-2024 Shelter Impact Report, and found that 31,983 people in need were turned away by shelters due to lack of space, the highest number recorded in Alberta’s history, according to the ACWS.
"The data in this report underscores the increasing demand for shelter services, but it also highlights the extraordinary dedication of shelters and their staff," Cat Champagne, the executive director of ACWS wrote in a statement."Shelters are more than a place to stay, they provide survivors with the tools, resources, and support networks they need to heal and regain independence.”
Unlike some of the shelters represented in the ACWS report, McGinnis said Big Hill Haven does not operate on the premise of turning people away. McGinnis stated plainly that if somebody needs their shelter support, Big Hill Haven will not turn them away.
“I think those turn away numbers are concerning," McGinnis said. "They can discourage people from reaching out for help.”
She worries that the report's findings might prove to be hopeless when it is dominated by statistics of failure and turnaways. Instead, she believes we should be focusing on impact.
“Instead of turnways, as a community member are you interested in finding out how many people were able to access services? That's the kind of stuff I’m interested in,” McGinnis added.
But trying to shift the narrative can be challenging, and McGinnis believes that the focus on things like turnaway can cause survivors to second guess their decision to leave. “It’s a bit discouraging, it’s like finding out the wait times at urgent care is like three days. Are you going to go or are you going to tough it out? We need to be strategic about messaging and make sure it doesn’t discourage people from seeking help.”
Women’s Shelters big problem
McGinnis believes women’s shelters have a marketing problem. Survivors of domestic abuse will call Big Hill Haven thinking that sheltering people is all it does. But sheltering survivors is not the only thing they do-- it’s just what they get associated with.
“Everyone who calls thinks that [sheltering] is all we offer,” McGinnis said. “Some people will call and we realize they’re not looking for shelter, they’re looking for education.”
Last year Big Hill Haven serviced 106 families in the Cochrane area and only a quarter of them passed through the residential program, the rest needed outreach-- support while they were still in the community.
McGinnis defines outreach this way: it is for individuals still in their relationships who are trying to find support, but need to discover what that support looks like. Some struggle to identify what the next steps are. Big Hill Haven helps them decide what they want their lives to look like moving forward.
“We are client centred," she stated. "We don’t have any expectations or judgment cast towards anyone who calls. Sometimes when people are in situations that aren’t the best, they can disconnect from family and friends. For us, a high priority is to find ways for them to get connected.”
This philosophy is not entirely unique to Big Hill Haven. As shown in the ACWS’s Shelter Impact Report, about 96 per cent of surveyed shelters provided outreach services to survivors who did not stay in shelter.
In her earlier statement, Champagne, the executive director of ACWS, said that “the success stories we see every day prove that when we invest in shelters, we invest in safer communities for everyone."
But McGinnis says shelters are only one component of a larger community response, not the end all and be all.
“I don’t think investing in shelters is necessarily the answer,” she said. “When we invest in prevention strategies and educating the community, that’s when the real opportunity is and that needs to happen alongside investment in shelters.”
It’s about prevention
McGinnis lays out an analogy. Cancer is a disease that kills people. There are going to be continual efforts to combat it, but there needs to be methods to predict and prevent people from even getting cancer in the first place.
“We need to start looking at family violence the same way,” McGinnis said. “We need to look at ways to prevent it in the first place.”
This is the direction Big Hill Haven, among other groups in the province, will be focusing their efforts towards. Big Hill Haven, in partnership with the Universities of Alberta and Calgary, software technologies company HelpSeeker, University of Calgary social work researcher Lana Wells, Rowan House, and YWCA Banff have started the Rural primary Prevention Project, are putting together a common front designed to stop violence before it even starts.
McGinnis says the project is looking at ways for rural communities to shift the community conditions that make male-perpetrated violence possible. McGinnis is hopeful that the project will bring numerous community leaders together to have meaningful conversations about domestic violence prevention.
This is what success looks like
“One in three women in Alberta experience violence in their communities," McGinnis stated, referencing statistics Big Hill Haven keeps on hand at their Cochrane office. "It doesn’t matter what community it is and it doesn’t discriminate."
In the grand scheme of things, the success of BHH and other organizations like it, success is measured in life and death. But along the way, McGinnis admits that there are many small successes.
“Success looks different and includes a bunch of different things," she said. "The reason it’s so wide ranging is that the client decides what it looks like. From the day they started with us to the day they ended with us, something in their life has changed…Somebody learns something, recognizing red flags, or can offer names and resources to [others] in need.”
Success can sometimes be related to just a simple act of educating someone about the signs of domestic violence. In other cases it can be more extreme, like saving a life. Regardless, McGinnis says that BHH is resolute in its mission of helping survivors in the community, educating those that need it, and finding ways to prevent the violence before it takes place.
“For decades we have really focused on supporting those that have been experiencing violence and we need to continue to do that work.”
