Residents of East Vancouver’s Strathcona neighbourhood face many challenges, including poverty, access to affordable housing and high childhood vulnerability rates.
Linda Day, Executive Director of the Aboriginal Mothers Centre Society (AMCS) sees in particular how these issues affect Aboriginal mothers and their children living in the area.
“There are many challenges facing Aboriginal women today,” she says. “Especially the underlying issues related to poverty.”
That’s where AMCS comes in. The Centre is a wraparound support service, providing transitional housing for Aboriginal women and their children for up to eighteen months. United Way supports on-site programming, including counselling, family advocacy, education, work skills training, and social support.
AMCS also uses a traditional Indigenous knowledge-centred approach to healing. Mothers can rebuild their sense of self-worth and identity for a better future for themselves and their children.
Before coming to the Centre, Tammy was separated from her sons, struggled with addiction and was living on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, separated from her culture.
Today, she has her sons, she has a strong connection to her culture, and works in the Centre’s daycare as a teaching assistant. She is currently in school to receive her Early Childhood Education.
“I feel really proud of myself and I feel really happy where my life is,” she says. “I am happy I have a home to go home to, I’m happy I have my children in my life. I’m happy I have sobriety and culture.
“It would have looked a lot different if I hadn’t had Aboriginal Centre come into my life. I think everybody needs to know who they are and where they come from.”
Learn more about United Way’s All that Kinds Can Be Initiatives.
