and operated newspaper : Your hometown locally owned : ra Sports a Community News Arts & Entertainment FE eatures Terrace’s ladies of the Royal Purple earned the right to keep this national trophy for the next year — it goes to the Order of the Royal Purple branch in Canada that raises the most money per member for the Purple Cross Fund, and for 1989-90 Terrace’s 39-member organization was the top branch in Canada. The ladies pulled in an average of $265.76 each through bingos, catering and their annual tag day. The Purple Cross Fund provides money for medical expenses to help children under the age of 19 and specializes in helping those with hearing impairments. The group’s next event will be a fashion show at the Elks Hall Oct. 17 starting at 8 p.m. Long-term shelter project next goal for Transition House Women need better options, director says Women secking shelter from abusive husbands go to the Terrace Transition House for safety and. help, often taking their children with them. But the maximum " Jength of stay at the Transition House is 30 days. What then? In addition to the emotional and _- sometimes physical wounds. ‘to ~ cope with, the practical problems for women who: decide to strike ‘off on their own can be. over- whelming, The vacancy rate for rental housing is near zero in Ter- . Trace. There is the matter of earning | a living, arranging care for Children, the risk of being dis- covered and harassed by an angry and: abusive husband, and the trauma of adjusting to a failed oO relationship. "Transition House director Leslie McCauley believes shelter that goes beyond the 30-day limit - imposed by the ‘organization’s contract, with the Ministry of Social Services and Housing should be available to women in| Terrace who need ‘it. The concept is called second-stage housing, and So adisfykety aca ae ; it’s the next goal for the Transition House. McCauley sees the need for many women in the area to have a secure place to stay for up to six months while they put their lives in order. The project would take the form of a lock-out apartment building with on-site day care and counselling. She thinks it would help eliminate the revolving-door syndrome in which women return. to abusive homes simply because they have nowhere else to go and no means of support. "It could act as an inducement for women who think they're stuck in abusive relationships,” McCauley said. The Terrace Transition House provided temporary shelter for 385 “women and children from the beginning of April 1989 to the end of March 1990. The occupancy tate averaged about 70 percent. Staff provided counselling to 148 non-residents —- women who called for advise and support but didn’t check in to: the house. The people who used the service come from evety patt of the social and economic spectrum — abuse and batiering aren’t associated with any specific background or income level, and the abuse is not often obvious to people outside the family. Women who are being abused seldom go around with blackened eyes and bruises. McCauley divides it into four categories: physical abuse (battering), emo- tional abuse, sexual abuse (martial tape is not unusual) and the de- struction of property. She has counselled women whose husbands have, rather than punching them, killed their cats, stamped on a favourite piece of jewelry, punched holes in the walt next fo their heads,,. and the calls for help are trending upward this year. All these actions, she says, are ‘ methods by which men scek to . hold control and power. Men are raised this way, she says, with the expectation — the compulsion — to control relation- ships and houscholds, It wasn’t all that long ago that under English Common Law, the basis of our children were regarded as property. Public education — :seminars; part ‘of the: Transition ‘House res- ponsibilities and goals. McCauley says there will be a stronger em- phasis on that aspect of their work as time goes on. Over the past year the Transition House has provided a setting for Human Service Worker course student practicums and put six people through @ 25-hour volunteer train- ing program. They held a fund- raising raffle and set up an infor- mation display in a local shopping mall, On Sept. 25 a support group ‘for women in abusive relationships Started, and will meet once a week for the next two and a half months for discussions and, it is hoped, to find a way out of their individual hells. The group is still open for new members, McCauley said, and information is available by calling the Transition House or the Sexual Assault Centre. The organization’s next fund raising. effort will be. underway soon, a raffle with blankets hand- made by women who stayed in the ‘Transition House as prizes. Tickets . will go on sale within the next fow. . days. own legal system, women and ‘Bnlisting support for a non-profit orgenization that helps women in ‘crisis is not an.casy task. It’s a ‘workshops, presentations — are cause that lacks glamour compared. ‘ta many others, the work is diffi- cult and emotionally demanding, and by its nature the cause is low- profile and sometimes controver- sial. McCauley said an application for funding through the Law Foun- dation to attach a court worker to the Transition House failed. The worker could have done important work in legal counselling, walk- through of court procedures, court accompaniment and applications for child custody and peace bonds. The second-stage housing project could be a while in coming. The Transition House has contacted Canada Mortgage and Housing about capital funding, and a grant application is in the works. Mc- Cauley believes a feasibility study will inevitably be required. Ksan House Society, the parent organization for the Transition House, holds its. annual- general. -. Meeting in November. The society will be seeking new board mem- bers, and it is currently lacking al executive director. ' McCauley says her long term — ‘goal is to establish @ counselling centre in Terrace to deal with family violence issues. For anyone who thinks that’s a goal worth realizing for this community, the ‘Ksan annual general meeting is the - : Opportunity to get started on it.