Women and their families in need of transitional or temporary housing will be even better served through The Broom Tree Foundation thanks to two recent grants.
“One of our main pillars here at The Broom Tree Foundation is that we really want to be able to offer supportive housing, which is really more of a transitional type of housing,” said Tamara Noordhof, the foundation’s co-founder.
“So the good news is that we have been able to secure two suites — one is a two-bedroom suite and the other is a one-bedroom suite here in Lacombe,” she said.
“It’s super exciting because now we can offer this transitional housing piece, where before we have been partnering up with hotels and camps and such. Now, the Broom Tree has become the tenants of these suites, and we are able to help, for example, a young mom who finds herself on the verge of homelessness.
“Our latest statistics show that there have been 15 people since August that we’ve helped to find some sort of transitional housing for,” she said.
“Again, it’s not a shelter — if they need support for domestic violence for example, we would refer them to the women’s shelter,” she said, adding that the suites aren’t for addiction recovery either.
“Some women, for any number of reasons, have perhaps come upon a crisis in life, and if we are able to help mitigate some of those barriers and help with some of that risk, then that is what we will do,” she explained.
“Aside from that, many community members were able to donate to the one suite, so it’s all furnished and ready to go,” she said, adding that wrap-around services are also provided to those who will be utilizing the suites.
“We are able to support them, and to check in daily with them to see what their needs are,” she said.
The Broom Tree can also provide meals to families via its food security initiative.
“So a big shout out to ECHO Energy — we applied for this grant and Guy (Lapointe) and his team were just incredible. They were able to make a decision right away, and then we got it going this month.
“We will be doing it as a pilot project for one year, then we will re-access. We also got a Calgary donor to do a matching grant, so the other suite has been funded through them — a young couple who love what this initiative is all about. So that was pretty cool!”
According to a release, transitional housing is short-term housing that includes the provision of support services, on or off-site, to help people move towards independence, and self-sufficiency and ultimately secure long-term affordable housing.
“Due to the lack of immediate and affordable housing in our communities, the Broom Tree has seen a significant increase in clients coming for support in this area. In the interim, we have established and maintained important community relationships.
“Churches, hotels, summer camps, and landlords in and around Central Alberta have teamed up with us to help the women we serve who are experiencing or on the verge of homelessness find temporary housing.”
Noordhof said that over the past year, the organization has served about 100 women (not including children and partners) in need of immediate housing.
“Many of them are either homeless or in the transition of needed long-term housing.”
Meanwhile, the staff and volunteers at the foundation also landed the Non-Profit of the Year award at the recent Lacombe and District Chamber of Commerce Awards Gala held on Oct. 20.
“How awesome is that,” she said, adding the award helps to raise the profile of the organization and show how real the need out there is, but it also shows how very supportive Lacombe and the region have been from the start.
“There’s this overwhelming level of support. And we know that if we need something, the community responds so positively and in such a profound way,” she said.
“The reality is that we don’t do any of this to be recognized, but the fact is that when your efforts are acknowledged, it’s such an honour.
“We were humbled to receive it and honoured for sure. It’s totally affirming,” she said.
“We really do share this honour with the community. With all of these people that have rallied around us, there has been this incredible synergy. It really does have a ripple effect. People have bought in to what we are doing and understood that there is a need.
“They are trusting that we are doing good work, and that’s really cool.”
