In honour of International Women’s Day on March 8th, we’re sharing stories from the amazing women who work on the front lines of our programs, from counsellors to support workers. Every day, they work hard and show great compassion to the brave and resilient women who come through our doors.

“It both hurts and warms my heart when a woman tells me that my help is allowing her to grow in independence and confidence, because she has no other support system. I am proud to be doing a job that helps people, but parenting takes a village and doing it alone is that much harder.

As a mother, I know that parenting is hard even when there aren’t other traumas going on in life. I know that the women in our program are doing something heroic in parenting their children while living in a temporary program, working to break the cycle of violence, and sometimes learning how to earn a living and be independent when they never were before—so many dramatic changes, all at once.

Sometimes, women struggle, as we all do. They might feel like failures because they’ve become used to hearing from their abusers that they’re failures, but they have so many of the same struggles as every other mum.

I was working with a young mum recently who was experiencing some parenting challenges. I could see the message that she was a failure had become so internalized for her, and that feeling was having such an effect on her, so I told her: ‘Your child isn’t judging you.’

Recognizing that she wasn’t a failure, that her child wasn’t judging her as a mother, was such a dramatic shift in mindset for her that I had to say it again, and I struggled not to tear up while saying it.

She is a heroine, and so are the many others we serve, and they deserve to know it.”

Nicole is a Child Support Worker at Wenda’s Place, Second Stage Housing.

Every year, over 500 women and children seek safety, guidance, and hope at Dixon. You can help.

Celebrate International Women’s Day by donating to Dixon Transition Society.

When you make a donation to Dixon Transition Society, you show women that you believe in them, you believe in their right to be safe, and you want them to have every opportunity to build a healthy, thriving life free from violence.