Allies join efforts for homeless Native women and their kids

The Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal (NWSM) and Batshaw Youth services launched a joint project December 2 to ensure Aboriginal foster children are placed with culturally sensitive families. The NWSM works with women whose children are placed in foster care.

“During the last year, we have had the highest number of Aboriginal parents volunteering to watch over the foster children,” said NWSM executive Director Nakuset of the amazing progress the shelter has made.

The initiative was announced during a NWSM fundraising event at McGill University November 29 that sought to raise awareness of violence against vulnerable Native women. The evening brought together McGill students and members of the public together to enjoy food and music by the Aboriginal Women’s group Odaya.

The Social Work Association of Graduate Students (SWAGS) and the Aboriginal Law Students’ Association of McGill University helped organize the event.

The NWSM staff members are pleased with the progress made by another innovative project that supplies shelter residents with cameras to give them the chance to produce imagery and poetry from their own perspective

The works by the women of the shelter will be showcased in partnership with the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts during an April show. NWSM will also be producing an exhibit on the Native women who have broken out of the cycle of violence and poverty in order to provide role models for the women who pass through the shelter’s doors.