Our clients come to us through the Shared Intake and Referral Program (SIR) - a streamlined collaboration between all three of Calgary’s second-stage shelters: the Brenda Strafford Society, The Sonshine Centre, and Discovery House. When leaving an emergency shelter, the shared intake program allows a client to be interviewed and have her needs assessed only once rather than three times, reducing trauma and quickly filling vacancies across multiple second-stage shelters.
Women and children fleeing domestic violence face significant financial, emotional, and practical barriers. By implementing the SIR, we have significantly improved our clients’ experience of transitioning from emergency to second-stage shelters.
Before the SIR was in place, women had to initiate the process of finding second-stage housing for themselves and their children after the maximum 21-day emergency shelter stay. This meant submitting applications to multiple shelters and sitting on multiple waitlists, a tedious process that increases client stress and anxiety and has detrimental effects on pre-existing traumas and mental health. With the SIR, referrals, and applications are standardized and all intakes are coordinated by a shared intake worker. Clients only apply once and are placed on a single waiting list until a unit becomes available in one of the three shelters.
Having a single point of entry improves the transition for women and children from emergency to second-stage shelters, reducing stress and trauma. To apply, email intake@calgarysecondstage.com
