Gender-based Violence
Abuse can be verbal, emotional, financial, spiritual, psychological, physical, sexual or stalking.
Verbal abuse is insults, shouting, swearing and putting you down.
Emotional abuse and psychological abuse include; when someone threatens harm or kill you or those you care about such as your children, other family members or your pets. It can also include threats to take away your children or threats to commit suicide. Emotional and psychological abuse aims to induce fear and intimidation.
Financial abuse includes controlling the family finances, not providing funds to buy basic items, not sharing information on things like the how much income the family has and where it is kept.
Spiritual abuse includes degrading another person’s beliefs, not allowing them to practice those beliefs or forcing them to adhere to another belief system.
Physical abuse including hitting, punching, slapping, pinching, pushing, hair-pulling or an assault with a weapon. Sexual abuse includes any act or sexual behavior that is unwanted. A man, husband or partner does not have the right to force any sexual act on his girlfriend, wife or female partner.
Stalking or criminal harassment includes persistently following someone, verbal, telephone or online threats via any social media application.
Community Development & Integration Program
You may apply as early as 11 months prior to your qualifying age. For example, if you are applying for your Canada Pension Plan at the regular retirement age of 65, you may apply the month following your 64th birthday. If you are applying for an early retirement (starting as early as the month following your 60th birthday) your first qualifying month is the month after your application is received by Service Canada.
Life and Hope Seniors Program or “Group Vida e Esperança”
Prior to the pandemic, the program was held Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday each week onsite at our 1645 Dufferin Street location. Currently, the group has moved their activities online until it is safe for clients to return.
Normal programming includes a variety of social and recreational activities. They include exercise classes, computer classes, art classes, dancing, health and financial information sessions, games such as bingo and field trips to local and regional attractions. Perhaps the ingredient most important to the success of this program is the opportunity to spend quality time with peers and build life-long friendships.
If you would like to examine the possibility of joining the group, please contact Abrigo Counsellor Marilia dos Santos at mdossantos@abrigo.ca
Youth Outreach Program
When you reach out to Abrigo our Receptionist will answer your call. Let her know that this is your first time calling and you are a young person (under 29) who would like to speak to a counsellor. Our Receptionist will take your number and provide that to one of our two Intake Counsellors. They will call you back and you can explain to them why you are calling. The Intake Counsellor will let you know if Abrigo can help or if another agency in the city is in a better position to assist you.
Most of the time Abrigo can provide the counselling and support to be of assistance to you. If so, they will ask you for some basic information like your name, address and date of birth to set up your file in our system. The Intake Counsellor will then provide your contact information to one of Abrigo’s trained and experienced Counsellors best suited to address your concerns. It’s a simple process that gets you the help you need as quickly as possible.
Partner Assault Response Program
In order to enroll in Abrigo’s PAR program, completing an intake process with us is the first step. This may be done over the phone or in person and can take up to 20 minutes. Once your intake is completed, we will provide you with a PAR Orientation appointment date.
During PAR Orientation, the program and its principles will be reviewed for you. The Counsellors working with our PAR clients will explain the Client Agreement and Fee Policy and once you have reviewed, agreed and signed the terms on both documents, you will be enrolled in the program. The PAR Orientation may take up to two hours. Once Orientation is completed, you will be provided with a program start date.
Once starting the program, please note that there is a fee for each session. Clients do have the opportunity to apply for a fee reduction based on the individual’s income.