Proceeds go to helping Nova House provide support in our communities
November is Domestic Violence Awareness Month and our local domestic and family violence shelter, Nova House is raising awareness and collecting PJs to show those in need of their services in our community that they are not alone.
This year’s Power of the PJ’s campaign is the 6th year that Nova House has run this annual event and Nova House’s Executive Director, Viktoria Westgate explained that it’s important to the work that they do.
“What the campaign does for us, specifically in the shelter, is it really has, for the past six years, supplied us with enough pajamas to last all year. (This makes it so) that every single family that comes into the shelter gets a fresh pair of brand-new pajamas, socks, and underwear, which sometimes means everything. They come here with nothing sometimes, and so, at least we can give them that to get started, and then we’re able to provide them with everything else they need as well, but the only thing we keep here in the shelter are pajamas and undergarments, everything else we get through our thrift store,” said Westgate.
Nova House itself is the only emergency residential shelter in the Interlake and North Eastman region of Manitoba for individuals fleeing domestic and family violence. They also provide outreach services and transitional housing.
“All families that leave our shelter, we also follow up with and we stay connected to continue to provide counselling and programming. We’re not a homeless shelter. So, staying in the shelter, we provide educational workshops, counselling, one-on-one counselling, there’s group programming, there’s art therapy, and different types of workshops. We also have guest speakers that come in. So, there’s an array of services that we offer for in-house clients, and then we offer a lot of those services in our outreach program, which is expanding all the time,” explained Westgate.
She explained that many people’s journey start by accessing their emergency shelter services and sometimes people desperately need PJ’s and other items to get them started on this new path.
“Imagine if you went somewhere and you didn’t have anything, and you couldn’t even bring your toiletries or your hygiene items or your clothes. Getting something new and clean sometimes means everything. It’s also kind of a welcoming, ‘Here you go. You’re safe now.’ It helps to make them feel a little bit more, I don’t want to say at home, but comfortable,” said Westgate.
The Power of the PJ’s campaign accepts PJs of all sizes as they have children from babies to teens who also come in needing help. They are also looking for underwear, sweats, socks, and slippers of all sizes, and financial donations are also accepted.
“Some people do financially contribute to the campaign, which is quite helpful because it’s November, so we do tend to get a lot of fluffy, warm Christmas pajamas, which are not ideal (all year round) because we’re not going to give someone reindeer pajamas in May. So, we hold off on those ones until the next winter. But with the financial support through the campaign, we go in the spring and buy more summer pajamas,” said Westgate.
She explained that though Nova House is currently looking for PJs for this campaign, for people who want to support them all year round with items, there is also a section of their website under their ‘how you can support’ tab with current and immediate needs.
“The nice thing about our community here in Selkirk is that a lot of community members do reach out and help us,” said Westgate.
In addition to these items directly helping members of our area experiencing family or domestic violence, this campaign also creates awareness in our community which is helpful for people who don’t know about Nova House yet.
“It helps to encourage people to take action or make change. It helps to let survivors and people who are in a domestic violence situation at this time to reach out for help. Maybe they didn’t even know we existed, but they happened to be at one of the locations. Like, maybe they’re shopping at No Frills, and they see our poster, (and think), ‘Oh, there’s a shelter.’ It helps just bring that awareness all the way around,” she said.
There are many convenient locations in our community where residents can drop off PJs and more as part of this campaign. They are: Twice Over Thrift Store at 214 Manitoba Ave., Selkirk, Packers Women’s Fashion at 409 Main Street, Selkirk, Red River Co-Op at 335 Main Street, Selkirk, Aaron’s No Frills at 366 Main Street, Selkirk, Harry’s Foods at 37 St. Andrews Rd, St. Andrews, Bella Ragazza Boutique at 63-B Main Street, Selkirk, and Network4Change at 92 3rd Street, Beausejour.
Westgate encourages residents to support the Power of the PJ’s.
“We all probably at this point, know someone or a family that has been affected by domestic or family violence or has been in an unhealthy relationship or an unhealthy situation, and this is a great way to show your support and help out without having to do much. We have six different locations this year to drop off, so we’ve made it very easy to drop off, and (community members) can also call us if they want to help in a different way,” she said.
To learn more about Nova House or the Power of the PJ’s, visit their website at www.novahouse.ca. For domestic and family violence crisis support, residents can call the Provincial Crisis Line at 1-877-977-0077 or the Local Crisis Line at 204-482-1200. If you are in an emergency situation, please call 911.
