WHEREAS womens resource centres play a vital role in communities through a range of services provided in support of women and children residing in municipalities throughout BC; AND WHEREAS through cuts to community social services in 2004, womens resource centres have lost provincial funding used to support their operations and services thereby making it more difficult to receive other funding; AND WHEREAS the lack of core funding has resulted in the closure of womens resource centres across BC, greatly impacting women, families and municipalities throughout BC; THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Province reinstate operational funding to all womens resource centres in BC.
Ministry of Health Ministry of Public Safety Solicitor General Governments priority is Families First. The Province has reallocated 68.7-million to support the implementation of Healthy Families BC. This strategy supports improving the health of BC families and communities by increasing opportunities for families to make healthier choices in a variety of settings that include home, community and workplace. Women play a pivotal role in the overall health of families and will benefit from the implementation of the Healthy Families BC strategy including the Healthy Start Initiative. The Healthy Start initiative enhances public health prenatal and child health prevention services and at the same time, focuses pregnancy and parenting support on women, children and their families who would benefit the most from intensive follow up. It includes public health prenatal and child health services to support all women, children and their families with ongoing or episodic care needs. The Nurse Family Partnership program provides additional support for the most vulnerable clients young, first time, low income women and their children from pregnancy through two years of age. The Ministry of Health supports the Womens Health Strategy Advancing the Health of Girls and Women. This strategy presents a 10 year vision for improving the health of all girls and women in the province through developing better information on their health status, fostering gender-sensitive health care and ensuring attention to health promotion and disease prevention in addition to medical treatment for illness. It is a guide to support provincial, regional and local efforts by defining a province wide perspective on womens health for policy development, a networking tool, and an evidence based document supporting women centred care. The Province remains committed to enhancing womens safety and ensuring that women who have experienced violence receive effective supports. Each year, the Province provides over 70 million in funding to support victims of crime including women and children who have been impacted by violence. This includes 12.494 million for victim service programs, 16.448 million for violence against women counselling and outreach programs, 12.343 for the Crime Victim Assistance Program and 32 million for transition house services including safe homes and second-stage housing. As a result, 95 of women in B.C. have access to services within an hour of their home. The Province also funds the Community Coordination for Womens Safety program, which provides assistance to BC communities to develop or improve models of cross-sector coordination on violence against women issues. The Province recently completed a comprehensive Domestic Violence Action Plan focused on enhancing and integrating the response to domestic violence by justice and child welfare system partners. Key components of the Action Plan included a BC Coroners Service Death Review Panel, the establishment of a new Domestic Violence Unit in the Capital Region, updating the provincial Violence Against Women in Relationships Policy, and developing a public website on domestic violence available at www.domesticviolencebc.ca.