{"id":4958,"date":"2025-11-01T01:15:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T04:15:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2025\/11\/01\/alberta-cuts-funding-mid-year-to-program-for-indigenous-mothers-who-have-faced-domestic-violence\/"},"modified":"2025-11-01T01:15:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T04:15:14","slug":"alberta-cuts-funding-mid-year-to-program-for-indigenous-mothers-who-have-faced-domestic-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2025\/11\/01\/alberta-cuts-funding-mid-year-to-program-for-indigenous-mothers-who-have-faced-domestic-violence\/","title":{"rendered":"Alberta cuts funding mid-year to program for Indigenous mothers who have faced domestic violence"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
<\/header>\n
\n
\n

\"alberta-cuts-funding-mid-year-to-program-for-indigenous-mothers-who-have-faced-domestic-violence\"<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Alberta cuts funding mid-year to program for Indigenous mothers who have faced domestic violence<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

By Jeremy Appel (ANNews) \u2013 The provincial government has cut funding for an Aboriginal Counseling Services of Alberta (ACSA) program that provides support for Indigenous mothers who have faced domestic violence, forcing ACSA to seek to make up the cost in private donations by the end of the year. While the Circle of Safety program helps men, women and children aged 6 to 16 who have experienced violence at home, the Ministry of Children and Family Services informed ACSA in September that it would be discontinuing $135,000 in funding for the women\u2019s program. ACSA executive director Keleigh Larson described the Circle of Safety as \u201calmost like a treatment program for clients that are involved with domestic violence.\u201d The timing couldn\u2019t have been worse, coming mid-fiscal year, since programming was already underway for the year, she said, adding that the UCP government didn\u2019t provide \u201cmuch of an explanation at all\u201d for its decision. \u201cInstead of just closing our doors in September,\u201d she said, \u201cwe really tried to shuffle things, and make it work. Even though it wasn\u2019t funded, I couldn\u2019t turn away the families.\u201d Meanwhile, Children\u2019s Services and other partners continue referring families to the Circle of Safety, which has produced a \u201chuge wait list,\u201d according to Larson. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of families that were hoping to join the next session, but they won\u2019t be able to until we look for more funding,\u201d she said. The 16-week program invites single mothers and their children to Transition Place in downtown Edmonton every Thursday, providing them with a meal, counselling support and a group healing circle facilitated by an Indigenous Elder. The children\u2019s Circle of Safety program, which is funded by the City of Edmonton, isn\u2019t presently at risk of getting cut. Larson said it\u2019s important for the children\u2019s and adult programs to work in tandem. \u201cThey\u2019re getting parallel teachings just to understand the experience, and to also overcome trauma and the family violence situation,\u201d explained Larson. According to ACSA, the program\u2019s costs per family consists of $7,000 for family counselling sessions, $700 a month for dinner, $250 for the healing circle and $50 to provide the space. The provincial government encouraged ACSA to submit a proposal for a separate family violence prevention grant, but ACSA\u2019s application wasn\u2019t successful. While they continue seeking different grant opportunities, private donations or partnerships would provide more immediate relief. \u201cRight now we\u2019re out there looking for new funders and new relationships, and hopefully we can continue that good work that we do,\u201d Larson added. Alberta Native News reached out to the Ministry of Children and Family Services to ask why the government decided to discontinue funding for the Circle of Safety. The ministry didn\u2019t acknowledge the inquiry. A spokesperson for Children and Family Services told Global News that the government has \u201crefreshed funding for family violence prevention programs\u201d and couldn\u2019t approve funding for all 200 applications it received. ACSA is accepting both monetary and in-kind donations that can be used in the program, such as gift cards or food. Those seeking to donate money can do so at https:\/\/www.canadahelps.org\/en\/dn\/136142. Jeremy Appel is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alberta cuts funding mid-year to program for Indigenous mothers who have faced domestic violence By Jeremy Appel (ANNews) \u2013 The provincial government has cut funding for an Aboriginal Counseling Services of Alberta (ACSA) program that provides support for Indigenous mothers who have faced domestic violence, forcing ACSA to seek to make up the cost in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":4959,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2075,118,1],"tags":[2074,116],"class_list":["post-4958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-alberta","category-indigenous","category-uncategorized","tag-alberta","tag-indigenous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}