This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
What is your favourite thing about the services your organization provides?
We’re a safe space for folks experiencing gender-based violence that intersects with other issues. We’re not looking at just one group. I can help someone from the two spirit LGBTQ community, those with vicarious trauma, precarious immigration status, a single mother, a grandmother, a single person, a young person, and a pregnant woman. Gender-based violence doesn’t have a color, age, ethnicity or creed. It can happen to any of us.
How do you define gender-based violence?
It is very broad. It’s not always intimate partner violence. It could be family violence. It could be a son and a mother. It could be a father and a daughter. That’s the thing about gender-based violence. It’s all forms of violence that women experience from their male counterparts.
Who comes to Embrave?
One of the growing groups, most recently, is folks coming in with the influx of the immigration movement with precarious immigration status, having children, being pregnant, dealing with abuse, and not having funds. So whether it is getting your status in Canada, legal aid, or access to a lawyer that can support you with the application process, we get you the appropriate personnel and remain through that advocacy process.
What’s one thing that you love doing in your job every day?
I am a survivor myself. I have experienced going through shelter life with young children, so when it comes to doing this part of the work I call it my giving back. Certainly, it is a way to further empower survivors, to look forward to a brighter future, to help them know their situation will not always be the same. Historically, we’ve been taught that gender-based violence, domestic violence, is always physical. For me, I didn’t experience much of the physical, I experienced the financial, emotional, psychological, and even immigration at one point. The whole trauma. I’ve always said to folks, the one thing I always asked for when I was going through the process — it wasn’t for money, it wasn’t for a big house — it was just to get my smile back.
What is your approach to helping people?
Validation is key for anybody who’s experiencing gender-based violence. Now, when I say validation, not necessarily validation as a person, but validation as a person with the experience. One of the things that I really enjoy about Embrave and the leadership team is you come to our doors, whatever your situation is, and we work with you to meet you exactly where you’re at and work at your pace. Yes, there are certain limitations in place, but it’s not forced. We’re low-barrier and client-centered. We follow best practices and give people the proper resources that they want, not what we want, what they want. It’s about where the person is at, and we work with them. Maybe you come in for the first month, and because you’ve experienced gender violence and human trafficking, you may just need to sleep for that one month. I get it.
How does Embrave provide a “people first” or “bottom up” approach?
We operate through transformative change and meet people where they’re at. Most recently, we actually created a food insecurity program called Helping Hands Hampers, where we provide folks with produce, hygiene (products), and non-perishable goods. Although we are a shelter, we do also provide supports to folks in the community. Folks who’ve experienced gender-based violence, but they’re safe enough to stay in the community, but require access to resources. Those folks are able to come in, get access to the food that’s available, and it’s what they want.
Can you give us a snapshot of one of your clients to paint a picture of the sector?
Our nutritionist worker is also a survivor. Throughout her process of receiving services from us, she went back to school and recovered. She’s no longer with the abuser. She has her own housing now and I’ve hired her on. She went back to school, so now she’s able to come back and give back to us.
What was the thing that made the change that got you through in your own situation?
I would definitely say my faith. For me, I don’t go to church a lot, but I do believe that there’s a higher power. I remember when I was going through that level of trauma. I would pray, I would read my Bible, and I would hope for the best. Funny enough, sometimes I would even pray for that person. I’ve had to learn how to give grace, and this is not just to the abusers, but just the people who have just done me wrong, and even now continue to do me wrong. Sometimes, people are going through things, and they don’t know how to speak out like you and I. When I encounter negativity, yes, it feels bad in the moment, but I also have to stop and reflect.
