Access to safe and reliable transportation is one of the biggest barriers for those fleeing domestic violence in rural Alberta, a new report says. Released Tuesday, the Alberta Council of Women’s Shelters’ (ACWS) report “A Ride Can Save a Life: Transporting Survivors in Rural Alberta to Safety and Healing” shows rural survivors of gender-based violence may face more barriers to safe transportation when escaping their abusers. The report outlines how public transportation within and between rural communities can be unreliable, prohibitively expensive or unavailable. “This is a real barrier that our staff and our clients are dealing with every single day,” said Jill Young, YWCA Lethbridge and District CEO. The ACWS provided 22 shelters operating in rural, remote and northern communities with $113,900 to provide survivors with safe and accessible transportation across the province. Nearly 3,500 people accessed that program over 14 months. Cat Champagne, executive director of the ACWS, says it can take a woman in a violent relationship up to seven tries to escape. Having accessible services like transportation is critical for an escape plan to stick. Without accessible services, “the likelihood of her going back to the situation or not leaving at all is huge,” Champagne said. That doesn’t end when a survivor arrives at a women’s shelter, the report’s authors say. Survivors still need reliable transportation options to meet everyday needs like going to work, taking their children to school, going on job interviews, finding new housing or going grocery shopping. “All of those basic things that are just essential to supporting us as human beings, that is where a lot of this funding ended up going,” said Miranda Pilipchuk, one of the authors of the report. Hopes for more funding The ACWS says it hopes the findings of the study bring in more funding from the province or municipalities to help fund its transportation program. But while the funding would be used to continue helping people flee from domestic abuse, Champagne said the issue of poor transportation access affects more than just those experiencing intimate partner violence in rural communities. “We’re in the women’s shelters world, but this also affects seniors, or anyone low income,” she said. “This affects those with any kind of disability or need to get to health appointments that are in the same rural communities.” In Lethbridge, the YWCA provides clients with vehicles and bus passes, but says more funding is always welcomed. “Transportation is a lifeline. It’s not a luxury, it’s a necessity,” Pilipchuk said. “Not having transportation can really make the difference between whether or not someone stays in a relationship that is unhealthy or abusive or if they’re able to leave and rebuild their lives so in many ways having safe and accessible transportation really does save lives.”
