Local Nanaimo group marks five years of supporting women fleeing intimate partner violence
As someone who has always made time to give back to the community, McGonigle (pictured) said she enjoys volunteering with the group, knowing she is making a difference. (Lauryn Mackenzie / CHLY 101.7FM)
When Kerri Isham watched the Netflix show Maid in 2021, she felt something had to be done to support women fleeing intimate partner violence in her own community.
The show follows a young mother who takes a job as a maid while trying to leave an abusive relationship and find stable housing. Seeing discussions about the show all over her Facebook with people wondering how they could better support those impacted by intimate partner violence in their community, Isham set up a Zoom call for women to meet and discuss the show.
“We spent the first hour talking about how we felt about the endless barriers the young woman faced in the series, and then the second hour we decided what we were going to do about it,” Isham said. “From that meeting we created Nanaimo Women Helping Women.”
The group has spent the last five years supporting women leaving abusive relationships. Twenty-five people were on that first Zoom call in 2021. From there, Nanaimo Women Helping Women has grown into a 100 member group with an eight-person volunteer admin team that helps women between Duncan and Parksville.
“Year one we helped 65 women, and then year two we helped 74, year three we helped 120, year four we helped 122, and this year we helped 98 women,” she said.
The group's goal is to be able to help a client within 24 to 48 hours of them seeking support. People seeking support need to be referred to the group.
“People can be referred from a doctor, a nurse practitioner, a counsellor,” she said. “We get referrals from VIU, MCFD, [Haven Society], Cedar Woman House, Community Outreach Response.”
Isham said for many of the women they support, getting help means starting over.
“Some of our clients have safe family members outside of B.C., so sometimes we'll chip in for a plane ticket, or we will give someone enough gas cards to get to where they need to go,” she said. “We've helped clients with broken glasses before because of a domestic violence situation or medication that is not fully covered.”
The group also helps the people by providing donated items like clothing, toiletries and furniture.
This year the group is working with other organizations in Nanaimo that help marginalized women or those fleeing domestic violence, by collecting essential items that will then be distributed to the community.
“We're looking for underwear for men and women, size small and medium. We're looking for hand and foot warmers,” she said. “We are looking for packaged snacks. We're looking for toothbrushes, toothpaste, deodorant, socks, chapstick, those types of items.”
Seeing the need grow over the last five years, Isham said she keeps going because she knows even a small amount of support can make the biggest difference.
“I think I keep up with it because when I help frontline workers to be able to give gift cards to their clients or to be able to say ‘yes, we can pay your phone bill or your hydro bill,’” Isham said. “It gives me hope and it helps my mental health to see that just average citizens can really make a difference in people's lives.”
But she said there are mixed feelings as the group marks its five year anniversary, knowing the need will always be there.
“I feel sad. I feel sad that we even have to have a group like this. I mean, this definitely should be more of a provincial [government], federal [government] funding model,” she said. “I feel overwhelmed with people's generosity and the compassion and empathy that they show our clients when they make donations, when they fundraise for us, when they attend our fundraisers.”
She said she is deeply grateful for the support from the community and their members to give back to women in need.
“Even though it's very difficult to hear over and over again that these women are being harmed by their intimate partner,” Isham said. “So that part is difficult, but I think the gratitude and the joy that it brings me to help people kind of overrides the negative aspect of intimate partner violence.”
Diane McGonigle has been volunteering on the admin team of Nanaimo Women Helping Women for four and a half years.
Like many people, she also watched the show Maid when it came out and knew she wanted to find a way to support women in her own community.
“I'm a former elementary school teacher and a principal, and so I've supported lots of people and lots of families,” McGonigle said. “I think what really got me about Maid was how hard it was for her to break away, and how many barriers there were.”
As someone who has always made time to give back to the community, McGonigle said she enjoys volunteering with the group, knowing she is making a difference.
“I think we used to do more deliveries with furniture and things, and I had a truck, so I was helping with that,” she said. “So I think seeing the difference, people's eyes get really big when we come and deliver all of the things for them. It could be somebody starting out that had absolutely nothing, and we're bringing them everything to get them started.”
She said it feels amazing to see the group hit its five year milestone.
“Just to be a grassroots group of women and to think about how much difference we've made in those five years,” McGonigle said.
McGonigle said while the group is always appreciative of financial donations, there are other ways to help out as well.
She said they are always looking for more volunteers to help organize donated items or to table at events around the community.
More information about Nanaimo Women Helping Women and how to volunteer or make a donation can be found on their website at nwhw.ca.
Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.
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