SASKATOON — Eighteen women previously incarcerated for minor offences at the Pine Grove Correctional Centre will have the chance to get their lives back on track through the 莫kw膿sk墨cik iskw膿wak 18-unit transitional home that will help them slowly return to society.
莫kw膿sk墨cik iskw膿wak means turning your life around, is a program by the Saskatoon Tribal Council in cooperation with the federal and Saskatchewan provincial governments, the City of Saskatoon and the Saskatoon Housing Initiatives Partnership.
The facility opened its doors on Friday, April 14, and is ready to welcome the first six women later this month and the rest by May. Like the Emergency Wellness Centre, the transitional home will also have staff in each of the three shifts to assist them with their daily needs.
STC Chief Mark Arcand said the 莫kw膿sk墨cik iskw膿wak facility would give these women a second chance and a place to call their home as they try to correct the mistakes they have done and also to avoid what happened to Kimberly Squirrel last year.
Squirrel, who struggled with addictions and mental health issues, froze to death in the winter of 2021 after 小蓝视频 released at Pine Grove in January 2021. Her frozen body was found in Saskatoon, leaving behind her family, including six children.
“Giving these women a chance to regain their independence and a place to call home is right. 莫kw膿sk墨cik iskw膿wak will make an incredible difference in our society and hopefully help break a negative cycle for some,” said Arcand.
“Any support they [women relatives] need. Anything from rehabilitation from mental health and addictions to Western [or Indigenous] medicine. If they need a psychologist, if they want Elders. It is wide open to whatever they need.”
He added that they could provide unlimited support and would not be a closed book where they would focus on one or two areas. Still, it is about inclusivity and helping the first batch of women become productive community members.
“It is about inclusivity. We give people the choice of what they want to do for services. But we want to make sure that those services are invested properly. If not, it is not going to work. So, whatever services they want,” said Arcand.
“If they want an education, how do we get them into school? If they want to get into a cooking course. Suppose they want a sewing program here and make ribbon skirts. Whatever it may be, we will be here to support them 110 per cent because, without it, they do not have hope.”
Arcand said the program aims to have the women in the facility be hopeful in achieving better lives after what they have been through and prevent them from returning to the previous lives that had them incarcerated at Pine Grove.
“We want them to have hope and a good quality of life in whatever they choose to do one step at a time,” said Arcand of the facility where programs focus on healing and wellness, education, training and employment and cultivating positive family relationships.
He said the emergency wellness centre was an excellent blueprint for them as they can proactively deal with the problems and other issues that might arise when the facility becomes fully operational.
“What we have learned from the problems is the same expectations that we had from our wellness centre. We are hoping there is no drug use here. It depends on the case plans of the individuals. We don’t know what they have been incarcerated for,” said Arcand
“It could be violence or breaking probation orders. I don’t know what the severity of it is. So, we will be proactive regarding ensuring we have the proper support, whatever the circumstances. To support the women that are coming here.”
Arcand added that it is not about judging the women temporarily housed in the facility but ensuring they get the support they need to hurdle any barriers and challenges they might face once they get released from Pine Grove.
“We will give them the support they need, so they won’t repeat the offence and end up back at Pine Grove. That is our goal. To get them on a healthy track and provide them with every type of service we can for them to be healthy,” he said.
“We realized that this as a community, a province, that people have challenges. Everyone is not built the same. We got to adapt to those challenges. We may not have all the answers on day one, but it is adapting. How do we improve from those challenges and make it better?”
He said they expect to make mistakes, but that is one way of learning, and the only thing to do after tripping or falling is to get back up and make sure to improve to prevent it from happening again.
The women are chosen based on their case plans at Pine Grove, and as of now, after the initial 18, there is a waiting list of 100 other inmates that committed minor infractions that will soon be released and housed at the facility.
The facility, funded by $3.8 million awarded to STC through the National Housing Strategy’s Rapid Housing Initiative Phase 2, is a temporary shelter where relatives can stay for more than a year as they try to rebuild their lives. Relatives can be visited by their loved ones.
The province and the facility’s staff thoroughly screen each woman who enters the program before residing in one of the bachelor suites available. The housing facility is staffed and monitored 24 hours every day.
