New Brunswick Fact Sheet

The Transition Home Survey is conducted on a biennial basis as part of the federal government's Family Violence Initiative. The 2003/04 questionnaire was sent to 543 shelters in Canada known to be providing residential services for women victims of abuse and their children. Responses were received from 473 shelters (87%).

The questionnaire was sent to 17 facilities in New Brunswick and responses were received from 94% of the shelters.

A profile of residents, April 14, 2004²

In a snapshot taken on April 14, 2004 , there were 125 residents in shelters in New Brunswick : 47% (59) were women and 53% (66) were dependant children.

93% (55) of women residing in shelters on April 14, 2004 , were victims of abuse and the remainder were admitted for reasons other than abuse, such as housing problems. Of those admitted for abuse, 96% were fleeing psychological abuse, 76% physical abuse, 76% threats, 69% financial abuse, 69% harassment, and 58% sexual abuse.³

Two-thirds of women escaping abusive situations were admitted with their children; 63% (40) of these children were under 10 years of age.

71% of women with parental responsibilities who were admitted for abuse indicated that they were also protecting their children from psychological abuse, 67% from witnessing the abuse of their mother, 35% from threats, 29% from neglect, and 24% from physical abuse.⁴

84% of abused women indicated that their spouse or partner was the abuser, 7% were abused by a former spouse or partner, 5% by a relative, 2% by someone from a current dating relationship, and 2% were abused by an authority figure.

The most common sources of referral for women residing in shelters on April 14 th , 2004 , were: another transition house (33%), self-referral (24%), and family or friends (16%).⁵

27% of women residing in shelters on April 14, 2004 , had been there before. 69% of repeat clients had been there once in the last year, 19% had been there 2 to 4 times and 6% had been there 5 or more times.⁶

45% of abused women had reported police intervention for the most recent violent incident and, in nearly half (48%) of these reported cases charges were laid against the abuser.

A profile of shelters, 2003/04

94% of shelters served urban/suburban populations, 63% served rural/village populations and 31% served reserve populations.

The majority of shelters offered the following in-house services to women residents: individual short-term counselling (88%), housing referral (81%), advocacy (75%), parenting skills (69%), and life skills (63%).

Facilities also provided in-house services to non-resident women in need of assistance. These services included crisis telephone lines (69%), individual short-term counselling (63%), advocacy (63), and housing referral (38%).

In-house services offered to resident children included outdoor (94%) and indoor (94%) recreation spaces, programs for child witnesses or victims of abuse (69%), and individual counselling (63%).

56% of shelters reported at least one building entrance that was wheelchair accessible, 38% reported having bedrooms that were wheelchair accessible and the same proportion had bathrooms that were wheelchair accessible. 13% offered services to people who are blind or visually impaired and 6% offered services to people who are deaf or hearing impaired

16 facilities reported providing a total of 730 outreach⁷ 7 hours per week.

Footnotes

1. The precise reporting period may vary. Shelters were asked to provide information for the twelve-month period ending March 31, 2004 or their own twelve month fiscal period.

2. No women departed on snapshot day.

3. Totals do not add to 100% due to multiple responses.

4. Totals do not add to 100% due to multiple responses. 'Women with parenting responsibilities' include women admitted to shelters with their children and women admitted without their children. However, it is not known if women admitted without their children had custody of those children at the time of admittance.

5. Totals do not add to 100% due to multiple responses.

6. For some repeat clients the number of times they had been to the shelter previously was unknown.

7. Outreach work included supplying information, accompanying victims to court, meeting with clients to discuss possibilities/options, and participating in drop-in centres. While shelters varied in the number of hours of outreach provided, the provincial average was 46 hours per week.