Funding running out
Centre that helps Aboriginal women get off drugs on precarious footing
A centre helping Indigenous women get off drugs, get off the streets and get back in the workforce is running out of core funding for operational costs.
As of March 31, the Jane Paul Centre in Sydney will be out of money to cover costs including the full-time co-ordinator, outreach workers, rent, utilities and Internet.
That means Beth Miller, coordinator for the centre, will be out of a job. But that’s is not her biggest concern.
“It’s not about me. It’s as long as the centre survives,” she said. “Our funding is so precarious, we need money. We need grants.”
The Jane Paul Centre is a harm-reduction-based drop-in centre for Indigenous women and youth, ages 15 and up. There are public computers, a kitchen, free clothing and sofas in a sitting area.
More than 30 women use the Jane Paul Centre weekly for services including counselling, cooking classes, ceremonies, smudging and help navigating government agencies.
A special focus is put on Mi’kmaq traditional healing and an emphasis is on the seven sacred teachings, alongside harm reduction supplies and advocacy help.
“If it wasn’t for this place, I don’t know where I’d be,” said Kristina Poulette, 38, who goes by Krissy.
“This place helped keep me sober for almost three years now. Three years in May. If it wasn’t for this place I think I would have relapsed a long time ago.”
Poulette, formerly of Eskasoni, now lives in Sydney. Her history with drugs started when she was 15 or 16. When she was in her mid-thirties she decided to change her life around and, thanks to the Jane Paul Centre,
she is no longer a drug user and has been upgrading her education, with plans to study social services later.
Poulette even became a parttime peer councillor at the centre until funding ran out. Now she volunteers her time when she can.
It is the focus on traditional Mi’kmaw healing that helped Poulette stick to a plan to get
healthy.
“Sometimes at the Ally Centre we don’t feel comfortable … we’re used to be confined to the reserve with our own kind and this is our place where we can be yourselves,” Poulette said.
Karen Bernard, a resolution health support worker with Eskasoni Mental Health Services and a council member for the Nova Scotia Advisory Council
for the Status of Women, has held workshops at the centre.
“The Jane Paul Centre has become a gathering place for our women who are in need of services and they rely heavily on these,” she said via email.
“It is a culturally safe area for our women … and is the only Indigenous centre in the city that offers programs and services. To hear that the funding is going to end will be disastrous to our Indigenous women.”
Chiefs from all First Nations in Cape Breton have come together and agreed to collectively pay rent for the Jane Paul Centre for one year to help the centre stay open.
The centre needs more than rent and staff. There is no sink in the kitchen, which is frequently
used. Dishes are washed in a bucket with boiled water.
Miller also sees a need for a washer and dryer, since some of the women who use the centre are homeless. This is why she has started applying for grants to help cover the costs of plumbing upgrades, but funding options for operational costs are running out.
Without core funding, Miller said the centre could return to a volunteer-run model, which was how it was opened, but so far nothing has been discussed.
The Jane Paul Centre was named after a 33-year-old Eskasoni woman who was instrumental in making the centre a reality and getting women there.