Give Amplify Connect

Shelter Movers: Empowering People, One Move at a Time

• Wolfe Pack Warriors Foundation • Episode 16

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Join us for an enlightening conversation with Rebekah Hansen, the passionate Chapter Director for Shelter Movers Edmonton, who shares her journey in supporting those fleeing abuse. Discover the powerful impact of this volunteer-driven charity that provides essential moving and storage services to individuals escaping dangerous situations. Rebecca gives us an inside look at the challenges shelter systems face, including extended stays caused by economic and housing crises, and the strategic partnerships formed with organizations to offer comprehensive support. With Shelter Movers now expanding to cities like Edmonton, Calgary and Winnipeg, this episode uncovers the charity's ambitious plans to reach more communities across Canada.

Explore the heartfelt stories of volunteers uniting to make a difference and the profound significance of helping survivors reclaim their personal belongings. Rebecca's insights shed light on the emotional and practical aspects of assisting those in need, emphasizing the critical role of security during medium-risk moves and the power of community allyship. As we approach 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence (Nov 25-Dec 10 2024), learn how you can become an ally, volunteer, or partner with Shelter Movers to contribute to this crucial cause. This episode promises to inspire action and awareness in the fight against gender-based violence.

Episode Key Messages

  1. Introduction to Shelter Movers Edmonton (01:07)
  2. The Critical Need for Shelter Movers (03:52)
  3. Partnerships and Gradual Growth in Edmonton (07:24)
  4. Impactful Client Stories and Volunteer Opportunities (11:34)
  5. 16 Days of Activism and Rebekah's Advocacy (16:13)


Other Links Mentioned

About Our Guest
Rebekah has been a tireless advocate for ending gender-based violence since beginning her career in the sector in 2016. Motivated by her personal experiences, she openly shares her story to inspire change and dismantle the stigma survivors are far too often confronted with. Her work spans executive leadership, frontline support, public education, and coalition-building to prevent violence and foster resilient communities. In her current role, Rebekah helps bridge a critical gap in services by providing moving and storage services at no cost to individuals and families fleeing abuse. 


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


Rebekah Hansen:

I've been on moves and someone is saying oh my goodness, I don't know what I would have done if Shelter Movers hadn't come today, If I hadn't got my stuff out by today or tomorrow. I would have lost everything. And that's not just their stuff, that's your kids' stuff.

Intro:

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 Christy about the impact people are making in their communities and how they keep moving forward.

Kristy Wolfe:

With me today is Rebekah Hansen. Rebekah is the Chapter Director for Shelter Movers, Edmonton. Now, Rebekah, I'm going to get you to first of all tell us a bit about Shelter Movers.

Rebekah Hansen:

So Shelter Movers is a national volunteer powered charity provides free moving and storage services to people that are fleeing abuse. So we're able to do that by partnering with our business partners. We have referral partners that refer to shelter movers. We have storage and vehicle rentals that give us free or discounted services so that we can support clients as we move them out of their homes and into safe locations, or from that safe location into their new home so that they can transition out and into a life free from violence.

Kristy Wolfe:

And I know that Edmonton is fairly new. You've just celebrated your one year anniversary. How's it going in Edmonton?

Rebekah Hansen:

Good good we did. We just had our celebration just over a week ago and it went really really nicely. It was great to see a mix of our partners there and some volunteers that were able to show up as well and just celebrate a year being here in Edmonton, being active in Edmonton. We've had some challenges in Edmonton over the past year, as you often see, with anything new starting up, and we are able to meet those challenges. We have new staff that have been with us since just mid-July, so pretty new for our managers that are in place right now, and that's it the two managers and myself.

Rebekah Hansen:

That's the only paid positions that we have. The rest are all volunteered. We're volunteer-powered. These new managers have been doing absolutely fantastic. We have been working really, really hard. We've been able, just in the last few months, even to referral partners who can start taking on new referrals more referrals, I guess, I should say and we're recruiting volunteers and so, with new referral partners sending people our way, that also means we need more volunteers to help do the work of moving and driving and organizing moves, coordinating them, and yeah, it's been going really really well. October is shaping up to be well, already to date, our busiest month so far.

Kristy Wolfe:

The podcast that came out before this one was with your colleague, Elsa Perry of the Calgary chapter, and so we've heard quite a bit about shelter movers in that episode. So if people are like I want to know a bit more, definitely have a listen to that episode before. And we're going to spend a bit more time talking about specifically Edmonton, but also your own experience. Will you talk a bit about how you got involved with Shelter Movers?

Rebekah Hansen:

I guess initially it was a recruiter that found me on LinkedIn and at that point I hadn't heard about Shelter Movers, but I was like, oh my gosh, tell me more Like. This is. This is my jam. This is something that's close and dear to my heart. I've been working in the sector since 2016,. January 2016. And, based on my own experience, that's what brought me doing and filling this critical gap, Because, both from my own experience and from working in the sector, I know that this isn't a service that exists the planning and all of the pieces that fit together and the security or police that support being able to do these moves safely. It was really, really exciting when I heard about Shelter Movers and this opportunity.

Kristy Wolfe:

When you say the sector, what do you mean?

Rebekah Hansen:

So I've been working at like I've worked at a shelter in rural Alberta that is serve clients experiencing violence, especially women and children. Then there was like outreach as well some public education. I did some work in the community on different coalitions bringing people together that were serving. Some of my work was with youth that were exposed to violence, or just youth in the community. So did some work with coalitions. One was empowering communities to be resilient, so that focus was around the whole community and family. And then another coalition that was for family violence prevention in the community and working bringing different things to the community and different people from that gender-based violence sector and family violence prevention together to make some bigger things happen in the community.

Kristy Wolfe:

That's really interesting that you were that heavily involved in this space and you didn't see anything like shelter movers. So this isn't surprising to me either, because when I heard about shelter movers I was like this doesn't sound like anything I've heard about already.

Rebekah Hansen:

Oh, absolutely. We've had nothing but great response in Edmonton and Calgary and other areas that we are. We're actually opening up in Winnipeg right away, so they're about to do their launch in November and that makes us 10 chapters across the country. So just in the last year, essentially just over a year we did Edmonton, Calgary and Winnipeg. So we've gone from seven to 10 in the last just over a year and we'll be looking at expanding even further beyond that because it's needed and it doesn't exist like this.

Kristy Wolfe:

It's currently urban center, so I know that when we talked about Calgary, it was 100 kilometers from the city center. Is that similar for Edmonton?

Rebekah Hansen:

Yes, so Edmonton is also 100 kilometers from city center. Some of our other chapters that have been around longer have started with that 100 kilometers and then have since had extensions, and so we're hoping that as we continue to grow in Alberta that we'll also have extensions, that we can start to reach even more of those rural communities beyond that 100 kilometers, because we know that gender-based violence happens in rural areas as well, and sometimes even disproportionately, and less access to services.

Kristy Wolfe:

Okay, thank you. Will you also talk a little bit about who your partners are and who your referral partners are in Edmonton?

Rebekah Hansen:

So in Edmonton we started off with. Wynn House was our very first referral partner and they have three shelters and then we brought on Wings, Wings of Providence and their home next door. So that's two shelters that are quite large, that are more second stage, and Wynn House has a combination of first stage and second stage shelters, so that emergency shelter and a little bit longer term shelter.

Kristy Wolfe:

That's the difference between first and second stage.

Rebekah Hansen:

Yes, so first stage emergency shelter is. Usually it depends on the shelter. Some of them used to be up to 21 days, up to 30 days, some of them are now up to 60 days. It just depends on the shelter.

Rebekah Hansen:

However, when the economy is the way that it is, and with the housing crisis that we're seeing, it's taking longer for people to be able to get affordable housing into a place that they can be permanently, to get affordable housing into a place that they can be permanently, and so they're finding that the stays and shelter are much longer, and so those have been extended.

Rebekah Hansen:

Sometimes even when the policy might be 30 days or 60 days, sometimes they're seeing them longer, and as long as somebody's moving towards housing and they're actively looking and it's just a matter of what's out there or not out there then they're seeing longer length of stays, just like with shelter movers. Sometimes then we see people staying in storage for longer because it's taking longer for people to actually get into that housing, and so that would be like your emergency and then first stage shelter, and then sometimes they'll move on and go into a second stage shelter before going into their own more permanent housing, in which case they would have lots of extra supports available to them and the added security that comes with being a part of that shelter.

Kristy Wolfe:

Okay, thank you for explaining that, but I hear the words first stage and second stage and I wasn't sure what that meant and I know it will look different based on the organization that you're talking about, but that was really helpful for me to understand. And you don't have to go from first stage to second stage. You can go first stage and then out, but there is another level with second stage. Is that correct?

Kristy Wolfe:

That's right, and then some even have a third stage Is that correct, that's right, and then some even have a third stage. Okay, and so back to shelter movers. We're learning all these different parts which are helpful for the average person to understand if they haven't been involved with this, and so I really appreciate you taking the time to explain that. So your partners we've talked about Windhouse, we've talked about Wings of Providence, and then are there other ones that have come on board.

Rebekah Hansen:

We've talked about Wings of Providence, and then are there other ones that have come on board More recently, have brought on Visa Homes and the Edmonton John Howard Society, but they are in the process of a name change for this part of them that we are partnering with, so I believe it'll be encompassed. And then, yeah, we've been looking at some other ones as well. We've been having conversations with lots of the different organizations in the area, so we have been supporting some on a one-off basis, but those are ones that have had training or have signed MOUs with us.

Kristy Wolfe:

Well and that's a ton In one year of being on the ground in Edmonton you're working with four main organizations and there's some other opportunities there as well. So this is what my hope is with Give, amplify, connect and working with you guys with the Wolfpack Warriors Foundation, is that we get to get the word out there a little bit more and see if we can help support to get some of what is needed in the infrastructure to then also support more people.

Rebekah Hansen:

Yes, yes, and we've had to do it kind of gradually in order to be able to meet the demand of the referrals, because we don't want to bring on everybody and then we don't have the capacity to be able to meet the demand. And so that's a big part of it too is playing that balancing act, is making sure we have enough volunteers, making sure we have enough referrals to keep them busy, and then, vice versa, get more volunteers, get more referrals, and so it's playing that game.

Kristy Wolfe:

So when you think about your experience with shelter movers in Edmonton so far, is there a story of impact that kind of comes up for you that you think of when people ask you this kind of question on a podcast?

Rebekah Hansen:

Yes. So I guess first of all I would say I hate moving, but I love going on moves with shelter movers. Like I just moved last week and I hate it. I'm still in boxes around me. I hate it, but to go on a move with shelter movers it's like watching this magic happen. We have complete strangers meeting up with complete strangers to help a complete stranger that they'll probably never see again. Sometimes they'll go on a move with a volunteer that they've met before Maybe they've never even met them before and they're going on this move together and they're helping this person that they don't know and will never know.

Rebekah Hansen:

And I've been on moves where this is happening and someone is saying oh, my goodness, I don't know what I would have done if shelter movers hadn't come today, if I hadn't got my stuff out by today or tomorrow. I would have lost everything. And that's not just their stuff, that's your kids' stuff. And that's not just their stuff, that's your kids' stuff. It's not just if I'm moving out, that's you and your children. We're not just moving boxes and furniture, we're moving toys and bedding and clothes and all those things that really, really matter.

Rebekah Hansen:

When I've worked in shelter before, you see, because most shelters have a one or two bag limit as to the stuff that they can bring in, because they're in the business of helping people be safe in that moment and housing people, but they don't have room for the stuff so that they can have more people.

Rebekah Hansen:

We can help with the stuff. To have to tell your kid that when they're asking questions about their favorite toy or their favorite blanket or that favorite outfit that they put on it makes them feel special and proud and just excited to be in the world. You don't know if you're going to be able to go back and get it. It can be heartbreaking to be able to go back and get those things that matter that you can't just replace. There are programs that you can go get furniture and go get some things like that, but it's not yours or it's not grandma's cabinet and it's not your photo album or that picture that your kid drew for you in kindergarten. And to be able to go back and get that means so much to the client and helps prevent people from going back into an unsafe situation because of their attachment to those things.

Kristy Wolfe:

As you're talking. I'm just thinking about what other people might be thinking as they're listening, and it is how do I volunteer, how does my business get involved If you are in that storage space kind of place? Are there ways like how would people connect with shelter movers in edmonton or in calgary?

Rebekah Hansen:

so you can go to the website sheltermoverscom volunteer and that'll bring you to our web page where you can get more information about volunteering and what positions are available. Just make sure you choose the city that you're in. So if you're in edmonton, you want to volunteer in Edmonton, then choose that city. If you're in Calgary, you want to volunteer in Calgary, go to sheltermoverscom and volunteer with the Calgary chapter or in another one of our chapters across the country. You can find us on Facebook and Instagram and LinkedIn and all those places as well. For shelter rovers, our business partners, like we have national partners across the country that support us in all the chapters that we operate in, for example, bluebird Storage Enterprise, avis, minimal. Those are some of the ones that are in Edmonton that we are partnered with, and so yeah if there are other organizations that want to partner with us as well for storage, for moving supplies, for security. Right now we use Benaiah Guarding and Mac Security Services, who've been fantastic, and so yeah, there's lots of opportunities to be able to partner.

Kristy Wolfe:

And when you say security, you're talking about people that come with you when you're doing the move. That's right.

Rebekah Hansen:

If we have a medium risk move, then we would have a private uniformed security guard.

Kristy Wolfe:

Rebekah, when this podcast comes out, it'll be at the beginning of 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence for 2024. And Canada's theme this year is Come Together and Act Now. Can you talk a little bit about what 16 Days of Activism is?

Rebekah Hansen:

Yes. So 16 Days of Activism runs starting November 25th and goes through until December 10th, and really it's about coming together as allies. So, regardless of what gender you are or you identify with, you can be a part of the solution when it comes to gender-based violence and ending gender-based violence. And so some of the themes have been around that allyship and making sure that, as an ally, that you are listening to and learning from the experiences of other people and really giving space for them and holding space for them to tell their story and believing them. It matters so much. When you hear, I believe. When you hear. When you hear, I believe, when you hear it's not your fault. When you hear, I stand with you. Those things matter so much and as a survivor myself, I can tell you personally how much it matters to hear that, as a survivor of gender-based violence, multiple forms of gender-based violence having people that you can talk to and that will listen and believe you is so important.

Rebekah Hansen:

When I was experiencing domestic violence in my home, one of the things that happens is in not some, but many, probably most, if not all, cases is that isolation piece. You're isolated from friends and family and people that matter to you. Having those people that are in your corner that you can rely on are really, really important, but it's not always going to happen because you've been isolated, because of distortion campaigns that might happen. So, for example, when I was leaving, campaigns that might happen. So, for example, when I was leaving, I didn't have a lot of help. I had help from some people, but not the way I would have because people didn't want to get involved. I've been through this actually a couple of times where I could have used shelter movers, to the point at one point also being a part at that time of a religious organization that was against me leaving.

Rebekah Hansen:

That said you should leave for your safety, but nobody's allowed to help you or they're going to get in trouble, they're going to lose their reputation within that religious organization. So you have it coming from different sides. There's so many different layers that can be added to it, depending on what your experiences are. There's so many different layers that can be added to it, depending on what your experiences are, and different people have different experiences. That can make the situation even worse when you're trying to get out right, whether that's religious culture, location even where you are, and having access to support and yeah. So they were told like you can't help her or you will lose your special privileges. You will lose your privileges, you will lose the reputation that you have amongst the only group of people that you know, and then you're left without anything. I left a husband and I left our religion, but that meant leaving my entire community. That meant my family, that meant my friends.

Kristy Wolfe:

So ultimate isolation, and so you have found an incredible way to take that experience and speak out about it, to intervene and to act for other people going through that with your role within Shelter Movers, as well as what it sounds like you were doing with the organizations before that. I'm wondering if there's somebody that comes to mind when you think of a person or an organization that inspires you.

Rebekah Hansen:

There is, and I've met them only pretty recently, but when we were sitting and talking and we were able to share some similar stories, at one point my daughter was taken by her father against a court order and I had to go through the court system to get her back. To get her back, and there was the parental alienation. My relationship with my daughter was terrible for a while. It's great now, and when I met Messy is how I know her, but it's and parts of her story were similar her, her child, was taken across borders and took a lot longer to get them back.

Rebekah Hansen:

And because of her experience and how crippling the financial abuse was, she started this organization called the canadian center for Women's Empowerment, and so this organization helps empower women, and specifically financially and economically. There's so much that happens when, like if you could have tons of money and not be able to access it through financial abuse, then you can't hire a lawyer or you don't have anywhere to sleep because you can't pay rent, because you can't access your funds. And so she is has founded this organization and is the executive director of it and looking at other organizations in the edmonton area, as they are looking at expanding that organization as well. So very cool, cool organization. She has a very powerful story. She's an incredible woman and doing a lot of really, really great, great things.

Kristy Wolfe:

Rebekah, thank you so much for coming on and sharing with us about your own experience as well as what's happening with Shelter Movers. I can't wait to talk more and to maybe meet you in person one day. Absolutely Thank you for joining us today. The purpose of the Wolfe Pack 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.

Intro:

On a final note, remember to okay. You're gonna be okay.

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Kristy Wolfe

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