Pictures of Serenity Place (From their 3 year report)

By Sheena Roszell

serenity place

Three-year report released on Grande Prairie’s second-stage shelter

Sep 27, 2019 | 1:50 PM

A report has been released on how well the Serenity Place shelter in Grande Prairie is working.

Grande Prairie is already home to Odyssey House, the 42-bed emergency shelter. For the last three years Serenity Place, which has 14 second-stage apartment units, has been available for women and children who are victims of domestic violence to transition from Odyssey House back into the community.

Makayla Marcotte, Director of Communications for Odyssey House, says one of the highlights of the report for her was hearing from some of the women who have used the facilities.

“It was really great to have that positive feedback from them,” she said.

She said it was also really good to look back at the past three years and see what’s been working and what some of the challenges have been.

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In 2018, Odyssey House supported 297 women and 164 children but had to turn away 481 women and 360 children because they were at capacity. The second stage shelter housed 25 women and 27 children but had to turn away five women and eight children because they were full.

According to the report, domestic violence greatly contributes to the rates of homelessness among women in Grande Prairie.

Marcotte adds they hired a practicum student this summer to really look at the challenges they face with the second stage shelter.

“So, the women from Serenity Place being able to move out back into Grande Prairie, so what are those boundaries? What are those barriers to getting back out into the community? Is it being able to have affordable housing or a lack thereof? Is it being able to find safe housing? Is being able to have access to affordable childcare?”

Marcotte says the report was also an opportunity to thank all of the community members who saw a need for this kind of building in Grande Prairie and helped with the capital campaign.

“A really big thank you to the community who saw a need for us to have a second stage shelter. At our emergency shelter, people are staying there anywhere from 42 hours to three weeks to a month and that’s not really enough time to get back on your feet, whereas with our second stage shelter we see women and children staying here from six months to two years.”

Last year, the crisis line had 3,386 calls. Marcotte says it’s hard to measure how that compares to other communities because Odyssey House services not only Grande Prairie but also the surrounding rural areas.

The full report can be read here.