Act To End Violence Against Women (ATEVAW), a non-profit Jewish organization that helps women and their children escape domestic abuse, recently opened a library at a Toronto women’s shelter to provide the youngest victims of domestic abuse with a warm and welcoming place to read, relax and play.
The ATEVAW “Turning the Page” library project first launched in 2012 to create a space in women’s shelters where children have access to resources including books, cozy furniture, computers and a comfortable work space.
Last month, Nellie’s Women’s Shelter in downtown Toronto became the fourth shelter in Canada to have a library installed by ATEVAW, which is the only Canadian charity installing children’s libraries in shelters for abused women and their children.
Since 2012, Auberge Transition in Montreal, Women’s Habitat in Etobicoke, and the Yellow Brick House in Markham have each received a Turning the Page library.
Helen Lampert, an ATEVAW board member, along with project co-chairs Elayne Shuster and Toby Zarnett, and a number of other volunteers, worked for months to design the library.
She said the retail value of all the goods and services required to put this library together would run about $15,000.
“We were able to do it for much less than that, because we got incredible donations,” Lampert said.
“It takes a real village to create the library. We began with a site visit and we had a volunteer that came in. He’s an engineer and he drew up the measurements. We had a design team that went to work in creating all the colour choices and mock-ups of the room. We had a donation committee that went about gathering books and furniture and lighting and computers and computer desks.”
Lampert explained that shelters generally don’t have the funds to allocate to something they would consider a luxury, such as a library.
“In terms of our mission, it is part of the Jewish values of repairing the world and giving back to others… and we know that literacy is a huge issue for young children who are in those kinds of situations,” Lampert said.
“It’s a marvellous place for the kids to be able to do their homework. They’ve got a computer and a printer, and they didn’t have any of this before. They’ve got lovely, cozy furniture to sit on, and a place to read together and a little table to do puzzles and play games.”
She said it was also a priority to ensure that all the books and furniture were brand new.
“For the dignity and self-worth of these kids, we want them to know that they matter and they deserve brand new books and brand new everything,” Lampert said.
“One of the things I think is very special about this is that we have multiple copies of each book, so in addition to whatever is on the shelf at the library, the shelter is left with about three more copies of each book, and the idea is that when a child leaves the shelter, they can take their favourite book with them and have something to take away.”
ATEVAW, which has two offices, in Vaughan and Montreal, works to support the 100,000 women and children who are forced to leave their homes each year for the safety of an emergency shelter for abused women.
ATEVAW also operates kosher women’s shelters in Toronto and Montreal and offers a legal information service for Jewish women who have experienced abuse.
“Violence against women is something that is still seen in the Jewish community as a shame, and there is a conception that it doesn’t exist [in the Jewish community]… I recognize really how important it is that the word of what we do gets out there and women who are in that kind of situation… can have a place to turn to.”