INTERVAL HOUSE PARTNERS WITH SHOPPERS DRUG MART

WEST MOUNTAIN WOMEN'S SHELTER HOPING TO RAISE MORE THAN $20,000 THROUGH LOVE YOU CAMPAIGN

"Throughout the pandemic, we have seen the rate of gender-based violence increase quite a bit. Our shelter is running with 31 (women and children) in a shelter meant to accommodate 22." - Amy Comtois

With demand for services at their Victoria and Friends women's shelter on the west Mountain on the rise, Interval House Hamilton (IHH) has once again teamed up with Shoppers Drug Mart on a key fundraising initiative.

The LOVE YOU by Shoppers Drug Mart campaign will enable Shoppers customers to make donations in-store or online until Oct. 14 with proceeds from 14 stores in Hamilton going to IHH.

Amy Comtois, resource development co-ordinator at IHH, said they hope to top the $20,000 the campaign raised last year.

The number of women and children using the shelter spiked after COVID-related restrictions were lifted last year.

"Throughout the pandemic, we have seen the rate of gender-based violence increase quite a bit," Comtois said. "Our shelter is running with 31 (women

and children) in a shelter meant to accommodate 22."

Money raised through the campaign will help cover the rising cost of food and hygiene products at the shelter, along with counselling and other services.

"Shoppers Drug Mart Harvard Square is very excited to contribute to this worthy cause," Jie Jessica Zhao, pharmacist/owner

of the Shoppers at 801 Mohawk Rd. W., said. "As a woman, I love that we have this opportunity to support other women in our community. We are running events in-store to generate more interest, and we hope to make a meaningful contribution to help those going through difficult times." Donations can be made in the stores or via: shoppersdrugmart.ca/en/

love-you/givingshelter.

Shoppers is donating $300,000 to women's shelters across Canada as part of the campaign.

More than half the women's shelters in Canada reported an increase in the number of crisis calls compared to before the pandemic, according to Statistics Canada.

Rob Mastroianni, the city's manager for residential

care facilities and the emergency shelter system, said the social and economic effects of the pandemic "exacerbated pressures within Hamilton's emergency shelter system, and also the provincially run Violence Against Women's (VAW) system, putting vulnerable families, often female-headed, under significant strain."

At IHH, the staff members have placed cots for kids in bedrooms to keep women and their kids in the same room. In cases of no vacancy at the facility, women are being placed in select community rooms or counselling rooms.

Once at the shelter, it could take up to six months for women to navigate life back into the community, find employment and means to support a living for themselves and their children.

People can also call Interval House of Hamilton at 905-387-9959 to make donations.