Women and families experiencing homelessness in Windsor-Essex will soon have a new safe and secure place to go for shelter and support in finding housing.
A new shelter will open early next year that will be led by the Welcome Centre Shelter for Women and Families, which provides short-term emergency shelter and transitional supports to women and families with minors who are experiencing homelessness.
Executive Director Lady Laforet is optimistic the new location at 500 Tuscarora has many of the assets the centre was looking for to help the families they work with achieve successful outcomes.
"In many ways the building really has shifted our community from a previous position of having a lot of goals and a lot of visions and really to a position of being able to stand here today in front of tangible success and celebrate it together as a community," says Laforet.
She says she knows first hand the amount of women and children who will benefit for years to come because of the investment.
"As an agency we have spent 30 years walking along side and supporting women and children and this investment and the partnerships that it allows us to form with the City of Windsor and other community partners, allows us to really start thinking and expanding on what community supports to women and children could look like over the next 30 years," she says.