Women's shelter benefits from Shoppers Drug Mart's LOVE YOU campaign

Barrie Women and Children's shelter needs urgent support.

To answer the call for aid, Shopper's Drug Mart is holding its 11th annual LOVE YOU Giving Shelter campaign.

The goal is to raise money to support women who need shelter to live free from abuse.

"We're full – I think we're at 32 – and we're only supposed to have 27 – we use cots when we have to," said the Barrie Women and Children's Shelter's executive director Teresa MacLennan.

The shelter only gets funding for 60 percent of its operations costs; the rest must be fundraised, MacLennan said, adding the LOVE YOU campaign money goes back into support services – letting women know there is a community that cares for them.

According to a Statistics Canada report, 44 percent of women have reported experiencing some form of psychological, physical, or sexual violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime.

As Canadians face the highest costs of living since the 1980s, many survivors of domestic abuse cannot leave because they depend on their abusers for basic needs and have few means of escape," said MacLennan.

"They can't afford to – and during COVID-19, everybody had to isolate – so they had to stay at home with their abusers. Some are still stuck," she said.

"During COVID-19, we never closed our doors, but we weren't able to do enough fundraising to even keep the lights on," she said.

She said women often come to the shelter with nothing, so staff provides them with food, clothing, gift cards and more.

Last year, Barrie's Women and Children's Shelter received more than $42,000 from the Shoppers Drug Mart LOVE YOU campaign.

All of Barrie's Shoppers Drug Marts are taking part in the fundraising initiative, or donations can be made online.