Optimism Place opened the doors to its new 10-bedroom expansion during an open-house event Monday afternoon.
After breaking ground more than one year ago, staff and volunteers at Optimism Place in Stratford officially celebrated the opening of its new women’s shelter expansion Monday during a special open house.
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With this new $5-million fully accessible expansion, the Stratford women’s shelter now has beds for as many as 28 residents, more than doubling the 11 available prior to the project’s completion.
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“We called this project Building On Hope. … Hope has been a major theme for our organization over the past several years. Hope, simply put, captures for us what we have for women and children who use our programs and services. Hope for a life free of violence. The completion of our capital expansion ensures that we reduce the number of times when we do not have a bed available when a woman makes the most difficult decision of her life – to call a women’s shelter and ask for support for her and her children,” executive director Jasmine Clark said.
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The women’s shelter officially broke ground on the 650-square-meter (7,000-square-foot) expansion in September 2022 and construction started in earnest that winter. The 10-bedroom additional also includes additional counseling office space, accessible washrooms, and janitorial and storage space.
Contributors to the project include the City of Stratford, which provided more than $82,000 in building permits and other fees; Marklevitz Architects Inc., the project architects that contributed the equivalent of $94,000 in services; and the Province of Ontario and the Ontario Trillium Foundation, which granted Optimism Place $100,000 through the Resilient Communities Fund to support additional staffing costs, programming and the development of an Optimism Place social enterprise initiative.
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Optimism Place also received $3.4 million from the federal government’s Women and Children Shelter and Transitional Housing Initiative. Administered by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, this funding included support for the construction of the expansion, as well as six years of operational support for Optimism Place.
“My thanks this afternoon is going to Jasmine … and all the women who work here (and worked on the campaign). …In this particular project and in the work that you do, it’s not easy work. What has struck me over the last year and a half is how they just carry on and do the quiet work that is required, quietly whispering hope for our community. … The women in cute but comfortable shoes accomplish so much with humor and grace … and kindness and patience,” Building On Hope committee chair Kathy Vassilakos said.
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Stratford Mayor Martin Ritsma also congratulated the staff and volunteers for their important work.
“We certainly knew there was a need in our community and, we knew if we put the dollars in your hands, you would do what needed to be done. … It’s a difficult thing to say that we need (this shelter expansion), but it’s an even more difficult thing to say that we don’t have the services. I truly respect what you and your staff has done over the years. The partnerships with the federal and provincial governments and through our surrounding area with Perth County and St. Marys … allow us to get so much done for the most needed in our community,” the mayor said.
As shelter staff are still getting their bearings and setting up their new office spaces, residents are expected to begin a slow move into the expansion at some point in January.
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