This story is part of a feature that first appeared in print in Revelstoke Mountaineer Magazine’s February 2023 issue. Read the entire e-edition here:
In January, Community Connections Revelstoke Society opened a new women’s centre on Orton Avenue. The centre provides several services, including counselling for women, therapeutic groups and help navigating different legal, childcare and income services.
The Revelstoke Women’s Centre is a space for women, by women, and something the centre’s staff say has been in the works for around ten years.
“The biggest thing is having a centre where women can just come and be,” says Lindsay Oberg, Clinical Counsellor at Community Connections.
“Aside from the services that we’re offering, it’s a place for women, by women. Where they can come and talk about what it means to be a woman or a mother and have counterculture conversations that challenge societal norms. Because oftentimes, those just don’t fit.”
The women’s centre is staffed by Nicole Rock, a women’s support and outreach worker for Community Connections, and by a rotating staff of clinical counsellors like Oberg.
“A women’s centre is a place where women can gather to address their experience of oppression which they can share in ways which are meaningful to them,” said Revelstoke Women’s Centre staff in an interview.
“It is a beacon to the issue of gendered oppression and gender inequality for the community. The statistics continue to show that gender-based violence in Canada is an increasing problem. This is why we feel a women’s centre is necessary.”
The centre aims to connect with women and all who identify as such. The recent photography project hosted by the centre called ‘Come as You Are’ invited women to book a photo session and capture expressions of what it means to be a woman and resist societal beauty standards.
The centre opened on January 9, 2023. It will host a community opening event for women to check out the centre on Thursday, February 2, from 3–6 p.m.
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