| 
Hosting provided by
Storm Internet
|
| The Transition Support program is funded
by the Ministry of Community, Family and Children’s
Services in the Ottawa Region for five shelters
in partnership with approximately six Community
Health and Resource Centers. Nelson House
of Ottawa Carleton works in partnership with
Carlington Community and Health Services as
well as Immigrant Women Services Ottawa (IWSO).
The Transition Support Worker assists women
who have been subjected to abuse and violence
and are striving to establish independent
lives. The transition worker provides flexible,
concrete assistance to overcome the barriers
faced by women who have experienced abuse
by linking the women to the appropriate
resources and community supports and by
providing advocacy when needed.
The Transition Worker connects women to
community resources, and can be an invaluable
support by providing information on housing,
financial assistance, legal assistance,
health needs and counseling. Women are accompanied
by the Transition Worker to initial appointments,
court, hospital, police interviews, lawyers
etc. She also ensures access to language
interpretation when needed, leads safety
planning and provides short term follow-up.
|
|
| Participating as a member of the Nelson House
team and under the direction of the Executive
Director, the Children’s Transition Support
Worker is responsible for assisting children with
their transition to the community, providing support
to residents and ex-residents of Nelson House.
Duties and Services include:
o Transition support to Children and ex-residents
of Nelson House.
o Conduct Needs Assessment.
o Short term Counseling and Parenting Support.
o Support to reduce social isolation of children.
o Assist mothers and children with custody issues,
visitation, safety planning, share information,
and connect to other sources of community support
around these issues.
o Links to Community Supports.
o Short term Child and Youth Counseling.
o Assists clients to assess needs and facilitates
their development of action plans.
o Support, information, resources and referrals
to empower clients to follow through on short-term
goals.
o Advocates for children and liaises with community
agencies.
o Maintains records and documents on serviced
provided.
o Attend weekly staff, monthly project coordination
and community meetings.
|
back to top
CHILD SUPPORT AND ADVOCACY
The Child Support and Advocacy Worker (CSAW) is
a job-shared position. The workers provide support,
advocacy, and resources to families at Nelson House.
They work with families to identify their needs.
Families may require assistance in finding schools,
daycare, or medical help. They may need support
and information regarding custody issues, safety
planning, or Children’s Aid Society (CAS)
involvement. Workers can connect families to counseling
or groups for children who have witnessed violence.
The worker may accompany women to register children
at school, to legal appointments or to court involving
custody and access issues, to meetings with CAS
workers, or other appointments.
At Nelson House, CSAW workers provide information
to mothers to support their children who have
often witnessed the abuse of or between the one’s
they love. They work with mothers on parenting
issues as needed, and help children deal with
feelings of anger, grief, sadness and fear. They
also supervise various children’s programs
at Nelson House – the Recreation and Respite
program, the Andrew Fleck child care workers,
and the Visiting Homemaker.
RECREATION AND RESPITE PROGRAM
This position is partly funded by Success by 6.
Ongoing fundraising provides the remainder of the
program funding. The program runs half time with
an extended program in the summer months when funding
permits and with the assistance of co-operative
education students.
The program is essential since it provides vital
support during a crucial time of transition to
the families at Nelson House. The objectives are
clear – to foster a safe, nurturing and
supportive environment for children to openly
express their feelings. Identifying educational
and emotional needs and encouraging healthy adult
child relations, mother to child relationships
and children to children interaction as well as
healthy eating and sleeping habits, give clients
a new start they need to heal and grow. The program
also works to reduce the stress and trauma as
a result of the domestic violence they’ve
experienced. Practically, the program provides
flexible childcare so mothers can attend appointments
to take care of housing needs, financial and legal
matters. It includes children’s programming,
crafts, indoor and outdoor play, games and outings.
Homework help and other activities to encourage
healthy development. The program also includes
family programming such as pizza nights, birthday
celebrations, bingo, craft nights, and movie nights
to encourage families to interact in positive
ways and have fun together. Staff help by suggesting
inexpensive activities for the family to access
once they re-establish themselves in the community.
|
back to top
Nelson House receives funding
from the Province of Ontario for some of the core
services but relies throughout the year on community
support, donations, and the work of volunteers.
A Volunteer Co-ordinator seeks out, interviews,
trains, and co-ordinates activities and tasks
for a group of volunteers. Volunteers carry out
many tasks, including organizing and participating
at fundraising events, driving residents to appointments,
picking up donations, helping with office administration,
gardening, grocery shopping, etc. The work of
the Volunteer Co-ordinator is critical to the
smooth functioning of the activities of the House.
The Volunteer Co-ordinator develops and delivers
a training program to all potential volunteers,
ensures appropriate screening is completed,
ensures that tools, manuals, tips and guidance
are provided, places and tasks volunteers. The
Volunteer Co-ordinator is often the first contact
in the community, and runs a one day training
program for all volunteers
The good base of volunteers continue to make
small changes that give women and children better
quality of life, as well as having an opportunity
to work in a team that makes social changes
in our community. Should you know of a sponsor
that Nelson House could approach to fund this
position, please contact us immediately at (613)
225-0533.
Some things volunteers may do include:
o Picking up and delivering
donations
o Organizing special events
o Playing with children
o Driving women to appointments
o Fund raising
o Gardening
o Tutoring
o Nutrition and meal planning
o Shopping for groceries
o Teaching crafts
|
|
