Give Amplify Connect

Navigating Family Violence with Shelter Movers Calgary

• Wolfe Pack Warriors Foundation • Episode 15

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Elsa Perry introduces us to Shelter Movers, a national organization providing free moving and storage services to people escaping domestic violence. Throughout the episode Elsa shares her own unique path from archaeology to activism and highlights the critical role of collaboration with businesses and community agencies, demonstrating how these partnerships pave the way for safer, brighter futures.

Explore the vital work being done at Shelter Movers Calgary that also touches lives in nearby towns . We explore the significance of November as Family Violence Awareness Month, underscoring the pressing need for education and community participation in tackling family violence, especially during the harsh Calgary winters. Whether you're looking to volunteer or refer someone in need, Elsa offers insights on how you can become part of this life-changing movement. Celebrate the impressive strides Shelter Movers Calgary has made in its first year, and discover how their flexible, compassionate approach is making a real difference in the community.

Episode Key Messages

  1. Introduction to Shelter Movers and Their Impact (01:15)
  2. Elsa Perry’s Journey to Shelter Movers (03:27)
  3. Shelter Movers’ Commitment to Rural Communities (10:57)
  4. Calgary Chapter’s Achievements - One Year Anniversary (15:05)
  5. Ways to Support Shelter Movers (17:27)


Other Links Mentioned

About Our Guest
Elsa Perry lives in Calgary, Alberta, the unceded territories of the Blackfoot Confederacy, the Tsuut’ina, the îethka Nakoda Nations , the Otipemisiwak Métis Government. Elsa has a diverse background in academic, non-profit, and private sectors, specializing in the intersections of women, children, and education. Holding a master of arts, Elsa is a peer-reviewed author and award-winning public speaker. She is a strong advocate for social justice and inclusivity. Through her work with Shelter Movers, Elsa continues to build collaborative partnerships, creating an inclusive network of individuals committed to ending intimate partner violence.


What is Give Amplify Connect?

There’s a story behind every action. Give Amplify Connect is a podcast from the Wolfe Pack Warriors Foundation that gives a voice to the Alberta-based charitable organizations creating community impact, changing lives, and making a difference. Driven by honest conversations with host Kristy Wolfe, it’s a chance for passionate changemakers to share their story.

Learn more at wolfepackwarriors.com

Podcast music used with artist permission
"Okay" by Ellen Braun


Kristy Wolfe:

November is a really busy month for people in the shelter services because it's Family Violence Prevention Month and it's also 16 Days of Activism, so you're going to see a lot more articles coming up about gender-based violence and seeing ways that you can give back.

Announcer:

Welcome to Give Amplify Connect, the Wolfe Pack Warriors Foundation podcast that dives deeper into the stories of the charitable organizations in Alberta that are making a difference. Host and producer Kristy Wolfe sits down with the leaders of the nonprofit world to learn more about their purpose, hopes and dreams. Settle in for an honest conversation with Kristy about the impact people are making in their communities and how they keep moving forward.

Kristy Wolfe:

With me today is Elsa Perry. Now Elsa is the Chapter Director of Shelter Movers in Calgary. Elsa, will you tell us a bit about yourself and about Shelter Movers? Of course, happy to be here.

Kristy Wolfe:

So, yep, my name is Elsa Perry, I identify as she, her, and I'm the chapter director of Shelter Movers Calgary, which is one of our newest chapters, as of 2023.

Kristy Wolfe:

And so Shelter Movers, we're a national, volunteer-powered, charitable organization and we provide free moving and storage services again, free, no cost to any individuals or families who are fleeing abuse. We do this by focusing on collaborating with businesses, community agencies, support people, to make sure that we can help individuals and primarily those are women and children as they transition to a life free of violence. And we now exist in 10 different locations across Canada and, as an organization, we've completed over 7,000 moves since 2016. We do this by bringing together a community of volunteers any people who are interested in organizing moving and storage services, giving back to their communities and it also includes part of the moving process, pet fostering services, language interpreters. We know that every move is individual. Any person who's moved knows how expensive it can be, how exhausting it can be trying to make sure you have all of those loose ends tied up for you to move. So we make sure that we have a person assisting the entire way. They're doing it for the client. We're a referral-based organization and right now in Calgary we have four different partners Fears Is Not Love in Calgary. Here we're Rowan House Society, who's located in the High River Okotoks area. There's Nisa Homes Calgary as well, and we've just signed with Unison Elder Abuse Shelter as well in October. And I like to say we do one-off moves as well. We don't like to say no. If there's an organization that has a person who needs help, if we have the capacity and the availability, we really try to make sure that we can move that individual and their families.

Kristy Wolfe:

We are going to talk so much more about Shelter Movers, but I also want to know a bit about you, elsa. How did you join Shelter Movers? How did you get in this space? My goodness, it's not a clear or direct pathway. I always stumble a bit on this question, trying to figure out a clear narrative to describe how I got here. I always like to tell people don't worry, whatever you go to school for, it might not be what you're going to do for the rest of your life. So I'm a prime example of that.

Kristy Wolfe:

I grew up just south of Calgary, actually near the town of Longview, on a farm Big horse girl in 4-H and things like that. And when I was 17, they said you should go to university. And I thought, ok, what should I do? And it's always funny giving a 17-year-old that power, which is great in a way, but also overwhelming. So I said, great, my father is an archaeologist, I like what he does, we can have a lot in common and I will be an archaeologist. So I did an undergraduate degree in archaeology and geography and I finished that and they said you should do a master's. And I thought this is great, of course I'll do a master's.

Kristy Wolfe:

So I went to the University of Saskatchewan and I did a master's there in archaeology and worked part-time while I was doing that. And then when I finished that, they said you should do a PhD. I said no, thank you, not right now. I'm going to go work a little bit, see the world and figure out what I want to do. And so I worked as a consultant for a while, working with governments and different people, making sure that cultural resources were being properly looked after.

Kristy Wolfe:

And then I started to get that itch again for research and figuring out and answering questions, and I also started noticing that women and children, in all the papers that I was reading, all the books and all the research I was doing, they were pretty much forgotten from the archaeological record, which I thought was crazy, being in the 2000s, that we were still having this problem and there was a lot of researchers wanted to look at largely how we as humans tell our stories of the past, and multifocality, which means the different stories that all exist at the same time, depending on who you are, your lived experiences and your culture. And through that culture and through that, I discovered huge barriers in place, even in Canada and Calgary that women and children were facing every day and combating themselves. And I thought what I should put my hat in the ring and I should put my money where my mouth is, so to speak. I quit my PhD and I started to look for chances, look for careers where I could use all of that knowledge, all of these skills that I had acquired in academia, teaching, that passion that I had, so I could be the person moving the barriers out of the way, opening those doors for people. And then I found Shelter Movers and it was such a perfect fit, a tangible organization where you have these movers and drivers moving those clothes, moving those belongings as a chapter director, being able to facilitate and connect networks, where we collaborate together to move those barriers. If we find out what a barrier is, we actively are participants in removing it and lifting it, and so it's just such a perfect organization for someone like me to really be able to sink their teeth and come back to the communities I grew up in year-round Calgary and give back to them. Well, I have to tell you, the Wolfpack Warriors Foundation sent out their newsletter recently and we highlighted the programs with shelter movers in that newsletter and immediately I got a response from an organization in Calgary saying we did not know about shelter movers. This is exactly what our clients need. We have shared it with all of our staff so that they can share it out. Shelter Movers in Alberta is only a year old and getting the word out about what you're doing and how you're doing it. This is one of those organizations that I'm hearing very quickly how impactful it is, and so that is really incredible and I'm excited to talk more about kind of what Shel shelter movers can do and how people can give, amplify and connect, because I think that's going to be a big piece of it, and we also are going to be doing this podcast with Rebecca, who's the Edmonton chapter director, so we'll kind of have both perspectives. No, this is going on across Alberta.

Kristy Wolfe:

But what else did you want to jump into? How has this organization made a difference in the year that you have been working with them? If you would have told me last year the differences that I would have seen in not only my life but also in Calgary in the last year, I just wouldn't have thought it was possible. This organization has changed my life substantially in so many ways and, as I said before, I was kind of on this really interesting divergence of my path. There was two choices that I could have made and it was very scary. I had gone away from the path that I had been set upon, that I had put everything in place for 10 years and I could see my whole life based upon that path and it was really scary. But finding shelter movers at that time and having an organization like this, that is truly collaborative. My colleagues across Canada, we all really care and we all love working together. It's been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life and I'm so privileged to have been able to be connected with Shelter Movers. I also really enjoy working and connecting with all the individuals within social services that work within Calgary and the surrounding areas, because we all have the same goal help as many people as we can in the best way possible, and it's really wonderful being a part of a community like that where we're all connected in that way. Working towards that singular goal and shelterter Movers enabled me to live, work and assist the communities that I grew up in. It's been a trip back home seeing the towns that I last saw when I was 15, 16, be able to kind of chat with some people and reconnect. It's just been absolutely a privilege to work with Shelter Movers.

Kristy Wolfe:

You are the Calgary chapter. Well, you, your group, is the Calgary chapter, but, like, are you supporting the towns nearby? How does that? How do people? Where's your service area? I guess is the best way to say that. That's a great question. So, our chapter, calgary, we serve anyone within a hundred kilometers of city center. So if you type that into Google Maps, it'll give you kind of a radius. We can serve someone as far south as Claire's home, as far west or almost in Canmore, very close Um north, just past Olds, and then east we can kind of go towards Strathmore. But we really like to make sure we're as flexible as possible and adaptive as possible. So it really depends on our chapter capacity at the time. But we've done moves as far as Staveley and as far as yeah, about 50 kilometers past Olds. So that's our general service area and as we grow as a chapter our goal is to just keep expanding that, because city centres tend to have more resources than the rural areas as well and we know how hard it can be, how insular and isolating small towns can be. If you need to leave Calgary and move to a rural community nearby, we can facilitate that. Or if you need to leave a rural community and go to Calgary, we can also help with that and making sure we're set up for that. So rural, we know you've got bigger pets. We know horses are involved in some places and times. So just making sure that people know we're here and that we work with Rowan House Society in High River and that we can facilitate those moves.

Kristy Wolfe:

If somebody is listening to this podcast and they're thinking I need to tell a friend about this. How do they connect with Shelter Movers? So we're a referral-based organization and, as mentioned before, we have those four main referral partners, but we also do one-off moves for other people. It could be community organizations, it could be police services, counseling services, things like that. We don't accept self-referrals because we need that individual to be connected with that support network. So if anyone needs our services or you have a friend or someone that you know could benefit, their caseworker can reach out to us and can send us an intake form. Their caseworker can reach out to us and can send us an intake form. Okay, perfect, thank you for that. And then for people that are thinking wow, this sounds amazing. How do I get involved? What would you say would be a starting point for them?

Kristy Wolfe:

If you're looking to volunteer for shelter movers, it's really wonderful to be able to give back to the communities that you live within or work, play within, and we really make sure that we meet volunteers where they're at. So we have those boots on the ground for physical roles movers and drivers. To be a mover and driver, you just need to make sure you can lift about 20 pounds. We across the organization. Our oldest volunteer is a woman in her 80s and she lifts boxes and things like that. But if you're not able to be a physical mover, also have administrative roles. So those people who are chatting with clients, reaching out to them, organizing the moves or, even more on the volunteer end of things, going out to volunteer fairs and letting people know about shelter movers calgary and answering questions. We do practicums for students who are in social services or other similar programs. We really can meet volunteers where they're at and they can sign up by going to sheltermoverscom and volunteering with the Calgary chapter if you're within the area. Also mention you don't have to be living in the city of Calgary. We have tons of people who volunteer and they live on farms and acreages surrounding and you're able, if you're a mover and driver, you're just able to accept and sign up for moves that are maybe a little more close to home if you don't want to drive into the city. So super flexible roles for volunteers. Oh, I love that.

Kristy Wolfe:

Um, we're also recording this podcast leading up to november, which is family violence awareness month. Do you have anything that you wanted to kind of touch on in that space? November is a really busy month for people in the shelter services because it's Family Violence Prevention Month and it's also 16 Days of Activism, so you're going to see a lot more articles coming up about gender-based violence and seeing ways that you can give back as well. And Winter in Calgary specifically comes with a huge host of challenges for people who are living in abusive home situations or who've had to flee their homes to shelters or other locations because of abuse. The complications in the winter, especially in November, are very high stakes, which is why highlighting this month is so important, such an essential time to have an open conversation about what the warning signs of family violence are, what resources are out there and how we can all make ourselves accountable for building healthier relationships in our communities.

Kristy Wolfe:

I always let people know that Alberta unfortunately we have the third highest rate of self-reported spousal violence amongst Canadian provinces. This is pretty high and violence affects all communities. Even if we think it's far removed from us, it's not Statistically, it's just really not. It's someone you know or it's someone they know, and it's certainly someone in your community. So education is such an important thing and we really urge people to just take a look in your community, see what events are being held to raise awareness and support survivors. See what events are being held to raise awareness and support survivors. I really appreciate that. I like to ask organizations to tell how people could give, amplify or connect, and you're doing an incredible job of just touching on all of those things as we're talking. Elsa, will you tell a story of how you've seen the organization make a difference over this first year and maybe this is something I know? You've just celebrated one year as Shelter Movers Calgary. Maybe there was a story that came up at your celebration. I can definitely talk about the difference I've seen in the last year at Shelter Movers Calgary.

Kristy Wolfe:

I always let people know that Shelter Movers is the only service of its kind in Canada, so expanding to the prairies was such an important thing. Name recognition is hard right now in Calgary and Edmonton because Shelter Movers is much more known in the east. It was developed in Toronto and has quite a base there, but there's had a waiting list of organizations ready to work with us. They heard that we were coming here and they were ready and giving us support, assistance, advice that we needed to set up properly, and then In Calgary alone, since opening in September 2023, which is the month that we had enough volunteers that we were able to start providing our services. Our chapter has served over 93 clients and 100 children to date. These are really updated statistics as of today, october 28th, and we have also assisted in relocating 10 pets as well. So we have amazing partnerships with, like the Calgary Humane Society and Parachute for Pets.

Kristy Wolfe:

That's a barrier to leaving is you don't? You shouldn't have to leave your beloved family pet behind, so we really make sure that we can do that as well. But it's quite impressive and since September, that's almost 100 moves were projected to hit our 100th move, which is a huge milestone for the chapter. But it's also much sooner than we anticipated to reach that milestone and the need is there and we're just trying to keep up with that need and we're trying to onboard as many volunteers and get as much funding as possible, because we have that list of organizations that are waiting to use our services and we try to be as creative as possible, because we have that list of organizations that are waiting to use our services and we try to be as creative as possible.

Kristy Wolfe:

My amazing staff they go above and beyond every time, every month. We think we're only going to make a certain amount of moves, but we go above that every month because we're just trying to fit in as many people as possible and because of that I know that we are making a difference in Calgary. We have those numbers, we know those children we've served. We've been on moves ourselves. The staff goes on moves frequently to make sure that we're also giving back. And we're going to be here next year and we're probably going to do that same amount of moves, if not more, and just keep increasing and serving as many clients as possible.

Kristy Wolfe:

So if an organizer, like a business, wanted to contribute, what would you say is the way that they could do that? Many different ways. So we have great business partnerships. Of course we do moving and storage, so we have storage partners, we have vehicle rental partners, but we also have other partners like cleaning companies that have offered to come in and clean the apartments when people move out. So there's a lot of creative ways to give back. They can always reach out to sheltermoverscom. There's a contact form in there. They can also reach out to me. My information is on LinkedIn as well and we're very adaptive. Calgary is small right now, but that's great because we can be flexible and really cater our chapter to the needs of our clients. So if you're a business and you're curious about how you might want to help out your community, you can most certainly reach out to sheltermoverscom and someone probably myself will give you a call and we'll meet and chat. I will make sure to put that information in the show notes of this as well, so people can just click the link.

Kristy Wolfe:

Now I'm going to end this, elsa, with asking you to tell us about an organization or a person that you've worked with that inspires you. You know this question always makes me stop and think, because it's hard to narrow it down to one Every day. I am so honored to be able to work with our referral partners. I watch them. I chat with our referral partners. I watch them. I chat with their caseworkers. I meet and have coffee with them.

Kristy Wolfe:

Quarterly Fears, not Love, rowan House Society, nisa Homes and Unison Calgary Elder Abuse Shelter. What they are doing and what they are accomplishing in the city and the surrounding areas is nothing short of fantastic and amazing. I am so proud to be able to work along with these people. And I can't even narrow it down to those four, because then I think of all the organizations that we meet and that we chat with and that we do one-off moves as we can, and they're also doing amazing work. I can't think of a single caseworker that's not out there advocating for their clients and really amazing work being done.

Kristy Wolfe:

I am so impressed and it's so inspiring seeing these caseworkers and these partners show up every day working with their colleagues, working with us, to really fight for the best for their client and they don't accept anything but the absolute best that we can give them and also other places. So you have these amazing champions that I just get to watch or get the privilege of working with each day. When I'm really tired and maybe it's been a long day and I've got cold from my toddler's daycare I always just look at my email and I look at the different names and I look at our intake and I see these caseworkers fighting for their clients and I just I'm so privileged to be able to be working in Alberta, to be working in Calgary and just supporting the clients that need this free moving and storage and need this support. So there's nothing more inspiring than that just watching these caseworkers do their thing Well. I have to say, elsa, I have loved learning about shelter movers.

Kristy Wolfe:

We are just at the beginning of this and we'll be sharing a lot more information out from Wolfe Pack Warriors about shelter movers, but please reach out to Elsa if you have some ideas about how to get involved in Calgary, if you'd like to volunteer or make a donation, as she's mentioned. There's a lot of different ways to get involved. Elsa, thank you so much for coming on. Thank you for having me. Thank you for joining us today. The purpose of the Wolfpack Warriors Foundation is to give, amplify and connect. Visit our website wolfepackwarriors. com to learn more about this initiative or connect with us about a registered charity that is important to you. Don't miss the next episode. Follow Give, amplify Connect on your favorite podcast platform to hear from other Alberta-based nonprofits about the work they are doing. On a final note, remember to take care of yourself and your pack.

Announcer:

You're gonna be okay. Hush, my darling, gonna be okay, you're gonna be okay.

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