As the Government of Alberta paid advertisement in the image just to the left suggests, sometimes we forget that Fort McMurray is more than just oilsands and industry. The Executive Director of the Fort McMurray Family Crisis Centre is going through a three-week hunger strike to raise awareness about the need for a new women’s shelter in her community.
Mary-Ellen Proctor is starting a 21-day fast — the number of days that women can stay at the shelter before they are reassessed, she said. The FCS has an emergency shelter but lacks resources in the community to allow the women to stay longer than three weeks. Last year, they had to turn away 400 women because there wasn’t enough enough, Proctor said.
Currently, they are housing three women, who have been staying for seven months. “It’s similar to like being in jail. It’s a terrible place to be,” Proctor said.
The new shelter project is set to cost $50 million, out of which $15 million needs to be fundraised. The rest will come through government grants. The society is in the infant stages of getting funding from government. Read more…
To donate to the Fort McMurray Family Crisis Centre, call 780-750-2530.
