In the photo: Jim Doan, owner of Western Karate Academy, presents a cheque for $10,000 to KTW office manager Cindi Hamoline. The donation, which will go to the KTW Christmas Cheer Fund, was a result of fundraising efforts by Doan’s students in a kick-a-thon.
Kari Bomstad’s job has a long title — anti-violence crisis intervention.
The reality is she is a front-line worker who talks to the woman on the phone living with violence in her life or greets the mom and kids who show up at the door of the Y Women’s Emergency Shelter in the middle of the night.
Kari is part of the team at the shelter that helps women access the resources they need and get needed information.
“Every day is different,” she says. “It’s the kids who tug at your heartstrings, though. They’ve been taken out of their environment. They may have been living with issues and now they’re in a new environment, so we try to normalize it for them as much as we can.”
It may be something as simple as making sure the new arrivals have toothbrushes and pyjamas because they have fled violence with just the clothes on their backs. It may be listening to someone who has been involved with the shelter in the past and has moved on in their lives, but needs some reassurance or some more information.
Kari started at the shelter while a social-work student at Thompson Rivers University, doing a practicum from May to August. She loved the work, the shelter staff loved her and she was delighted to join the team there.
Bomstad knew her career path would take her in this direction. Her mom ran a care home in Williams Lake and she always knew this was the kind of work she wanted to do.
Since Kari has been involved, there hasn’t been a day when the facility wasn’t full.
That’s not unusual. Last year, for example, the shelter had more than 700 referrals.
It took in more than 300 women and children and the beds were slept in 4,600 times. Another 450 women received non-residential help and care.
By the end of September of this year, the shelter had 440 referrals and 190 women and children had been give a home there; 471 were helped over the phone.
“This is such an amazing place,” Kari said. “As a student, you have ideas in your head about what it will be, but the variety of services we can provide is so amazing — although it all depends on funding and donations.”
While donations help keep the facility running, they’re also needed for the birthday gifts for children who aren’t at home. They’re needed for meals and Christmas baking, the little moments that help make the new reality of the shelter’s residents feel a little less abnormal.
While it might seem to be a job fraught with overwhelming emotion, Kari says staff know the importance of the work and there are days when that is impossible to do.
“Self-care is important and you have to watch for burnout,” she says.
The Y women’s emergency shelter is one of four charities chosen to benefit from this year’s KTW Christmas Cheer Fund.
The others are the New Life Mission, the Marjorie Willoughby Snowden Memorial Hospice Home and the Sensational Soups meal program at Mount Paul United Church.
THANK YOU TO ALL DONORS TO KTW CHRISTMAS CHEER FUND:
Tim Shoults: $50
In memory of Allan Radies: $200
T&I Anderson: $25
Richard and Fearon Blair: $175
Anonymous: $100
Gillian and Walter Gaiser: $40
Jo Ann and Peter Hall: $250
Phil and Cathy Holman: $100
Albert and Gaye Morrissette: $150
In memory of Dicey Robinson: $1,000
Arne and Pinky Saastad: $25
KTW staff: $276
Colleen Stainton: $200
Diane and Christ Wells: $100
Western Karate Academy: $10,000
Judy Wiebe: $100
Edna Yansa: $300
Anonymous: $100
Anonymous: $100
Ken and Gladys Klepachek: $100
TRU finance department: $250
Cathy Eckhart: $50
Geoffrey Gibbard: $100
Verita and Case Van Diemen: $1,500
Anonymous: $50
Anonymous: $20
In loving memory of Jim Totten: $100
In memory of Wilf Schmidt: $200
Lil and Harry Frances: $50
Anonymous: $25
Mel and Wilda Bronken: $100
Anonymous: $75
Terry and Dick Taylor: $100
Ed and Dianne Barker: $200
Geoffrey Gibbard: $100
Alison Bepple: $25
In memory of Kaye Whiteman: $25
Bob and Jo-Mary Hunter: $200
John and Eileen Jones: $75
In memory of Sandy: $100
A&C McNeely: $100
Catherine Oakden: $100
Shirley Ross: $100
Stephen Griffiths: $30
The Hanes family in memory of Bob and Brett: $100
Anonymous: $100
Jaime MItchell’s headscarf: $200
Jesse and Claire Weymouth: $50
Paula and Brad Gardner: $60
Anonymous: $150
Anonymous: $50
Anonymous: $50
Anonymous: $50
Anonymous: $50
Millie and Stan Malanchuk in memory of Sophie: $50
Spencer and Janet Bryson: $200
Bill and Carol Greenhalgh: $500
June and Ken Wallin: $100
Jane-Ellen Doubt: $100
Shirley Brown: $100
Keith and Doreen Eastcott: $200
John and Mereda Innis: $100
CML Properties: $500
Christopher Wass: $75
Margaret Houghton: $100
Orval and Nadia Olafson: $100
Wayne and Twink Murphy: $25
John and Arline Agassiz: $100
Gwen Mackinder in memory of Minnie Cook: $100
Anonymous: $250
In memory of Lewis McIntyre: $100
In memory of Ross Sparrow: $50
Alexis Percy: $280
Donald Wood and Sandra Mori: $100
Evelyn Meyer: $100
Anonymous: $50
Kay Prichard: $25
Mike and Helen McBride: $100
Anonymous: $5
Total to date: $21,116
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