Lisa had broken away from her abusive partner, children in tow. But she had reason to worry – while justice officials were working on bringing criminal charges against him and establishing a no-contact order, she knew he had a history of not caring about either.
Lisa (not her real name) mentioned this to a worker with Saint John Domestic Violence Outreach and together they worked on a safety plan that included her finding a new place to live where he could not find her. Money, though, would be an issue – she would need help in order to start over again. To get a new apartment, she needed a damage deposit.
The outreach worker managed to get her enough for the deposit through the client safety and emergency fund, which benefited from funding through the Emergency Community Response Fund.
“I am happy to say that this survivor is now in a safe home with her children, independent from the person who abused her and he is unaware of her location,” the outreach worker would later write. “A mere few hundred dollars gave her the safety she was hoping for and made a huge impact on the lives of her and her children.”