Beendigen Anishinabe Women’s Crisis Home and Family Healing Agency maintains services throughout COVID-19 pandemic

By Rick Garrick

THUNDER BAY — Beendigen Anishinabe Women’s Crisis Home and Family Healing Agency is continuing to provide its wide range of services, including the Women’s Crisis Home and Talk4Healing, during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

“Women are being forced to isolate and a lot of their abusers are not working, so they are just at home and it is leading to a volatile situation where these women are not safe,” says Debra Vermette, executive director at Beendigen, during an Apr. 16 phone interview. “Having a safe place to be able to call out and get help is essential in these times. So the Talk4Healing is open 24/7 and our Women’s Crisis Home is also open.”

Talk4Healing provides a culturally-grounded confidential helpline at 1-855-554-HEAL for Indigenous women across Ontario in 14 languages.

“Women can call there when they need someone to talk to when they need services,” Vermette says. “If it’s an emergency crisis, they will refer them to the closest emergency women’s shelter.”

The Women’s Crisis Home provides free emergency shelter for women and children who require safe accommodations and are seeking refuge from abuse.

“Our Crisis Home has its own crisis line,” Vermette says, noting the crisis line phone number is 807-346-HELP (4357) or toll free at 1-888-200-9997. “So if women are in crisis, then they call the crisis line and they will work with the women at getting them to a safe space.”

Vermette says Talk4Healing has been receiving more calls during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“A lot of the calls are concerns with COVID-19 being added to the normal calls for help on domestic violence,” Vermette says. “A lot of women are concerned about keeping themselves and their children safe.”

Vermette says women are also calling for services at the Women’s Crisis Home.

“We work in conjunction with the police, so we have the police also bringing women to the home and getting them out of domestic violence situations,” Vermette says. “We are a funded 24-bed shelter, but due to social distancing, we cannot fill the house up. For women who are willing to sign an agreement and come in and agree not to go off property, we will place them in the Crisis Home. They will go into a 14-day isolation to make sure they are COVID-19 free and then we will move them into the main part of the Crisis Home.”

Vermette says the Women’s Crisis Home is currently utilizing off-site accommodations for women to stay in because they cannot use all of the beds due to social distancing measures.

“They are fine with that,” Vermette says. “It is a safe space for them to stay.”

Vermette says Beendigen’s other staff are working remotely to provide their services via telephone and video.

“We’re still providing the counselling, the outreach services, the parenting programs that we have going, the [National Native Alcohol and Drug Addiction Program],” Vermette says. “We have a Parenting Program — she is putting together craft projects and she will drop them off at the door of her clients so their children have something to do.”

Vermette says program staff can be reached by calling the Healing Our Own Counselling Unit at 807-344-9579.

“We’re having the telephone set up today so that the calls there will be forwarded,” Vermette says. “We’ll have someone working from home Monday to Friday from 9-4 and she will be able to take calls.”

Information about Beendigen’s services are posted online.