By Jessica Bird
After a six-month relocation and a $500,000 renovation, Ottawa’s women of the Well are finally coming home.
The Well is a non-profit drop-in centre for women and children in Ottawa.
After operating out of the basement of St. John the Evangelist Church for 21 years, supporters of the program decided to renovate the space.
The Well was awarded a grant of $505,400 for renovations, from the Supporting Communities Partnership Initiative (SCPI), a division of the
federally-
supported National Homelessness Initiative.
The cause was a “winner from the start,” says Constance Woloschuk, a member of the grant allocation committee for SCPI.
“We had no problem at all accepting this proposal because we know the women really need it,” she says.
Though the Somerset Street location is a prime spot to serve women, many say the building was falling apart.
“It was the typical church basement with bulging, bubbling floors and peeling walls,” says Rev. Canon Garth Bulmer of St. John’s Church.
“I’ve often thought of how awful it would be to have to go to work down there everyday,” he says.
Many activity rooms were shutting down because of mould, says Janet McInnes, a staff member at the centre.
But now that has changed, volunteers say.
The renovation includes a walk-in freezer and fridge for the centre’s food services, a refurbished kitchen with new appliances, a computer room, offices, various activity rooms, increased storage for donations and wheelchair-accessible showers and washrooms.
“Very often these women have no place to take a shower, to change their clothes (and) get a hot meal,” says Olga Timakova, who has volunteered for the Well for four years.
The increase in storage space will be particularly helpful because the centre provides emergency food relief as well as free hygiene products, clothes and other basic necessities, Timakova says.
Another important part of the Well is the emotional support it provides, says Frances Skidmore, who has used the services for three years.
“I had lost my husband and I figured I had sat home long enough,” Skidmore says. “I had more or less died, but when I started to come here I came alive again,” she says.
In 2003 Statistics Canada released figures showing that 18 per cent of Ottawa-Gatineau females were low-income.
Drop-in centres such as the Well are important in helping alleviate some of the struggles women and children face, says Catherine Kaye, Ontario director of the National Homelessness Initiative.
“Sometimes it is good to go to a place just to get warm,” she says.
After their grand reopening on Nov. 7, volunteers and employees of the Well say they will continue to “empower” many women in the community.
Excited to be back, Timakova says “these services help people keep a decent life.”