My Sister’s Place history or as we like to call it “her”story. began long before the shelter itself opened.
We have served the county of South Simcoe since 1987 including the communities; New Tecumseth, Essa, Innisfil, Bradford and Adjala Tosorontio but it wasn’t always that way.
The beginnings of what would someday be My Sister’s Place began when a small group of concerned community members came together in 1977 to discuss several issues that they felt were of growing concern in Alliston. One of the key issues that they had identified, was how to address the needs of women who were showing up at local churches, at the hospital and at other agencies in town suffering from physical, mental and emotional abuse. From these first meetings a steering group was created, they worked hard to gather statistical information from Stats Canada, the provincial government, local police detachments and from health agencies in the area.
All of this information gathered proved that abuse was widespread in the area and appeared to be growing worse. At this point the steering group approached the municipal governments for support to open a women’s shelter in the community. While they were seeking financial support which was critical to move forward with their plan to build a shelter, it was also important that this widespread problem was acknowledged, by community officials and their support was given.
The Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services were very supportive of opening a women’s shelter during this time but that wouldn’t happen quite yet. With their help a different kind of agency was first established called The Contact Information Agency. This agency initially provided women a “listening ear”, gave them contact numbers and provided community referrals to other agencies that were already operating in the area. Contact Community Servies still operates today and is helping people in our community in different ways. The steering group of community members involved kept pushing ahead and finally through hard work, and perseverance, 10 years after the group first got together the agency called “People In Transition Inc.” was incorporated and a house was bought on Albert Street in Alliston. In May of 1987, People in Transition, better known as My Sister’s Place opened the door of the shelter.
Since then, we have evolved significantly in order to meet the demands of the communities we serve. Our organization has caring professional employees trained in women’s and children’s services and both our shelter and crisis line are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year. We have added more in shelter services and out-reach services, to meet the needs of the women and their children as well as the expansion of our services to all of South Simcoe County. Over the years we have expanded our residential services by adding our second and third-stage housing. Even today the organization continues to grow with more outreach programs, legacy advocacy and support, and transitional affordable housing support. We will keep moving forward to better serve our communities, to meet the needs of the women who come through our doors, and to provide the best care and facilities possible.