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OFFERING COUNSELLING AND SHELTER at the Emily Murphy House for beaten wives in North Vancouver are
Lennie Stevens (left), counsellor, and Dianne Mathes, program coordinator. The centre offers private and semi-
private accommodation for up to 11 wives and children, including a play area for the children. (Ian Smith photo)

NEED CLEARLY DEMONSTRATED

roe
fe

en for ba

tered wives

full almost continuously

By CHRIS LLOYD

Emily Murphy House, the North Vancouver
shelter for battered wives, maintained an average
occupancy level of 90 per cent in the six months
since the retreat opened at the end of last

November.

According to the first
report on the centre by
coordinator Dianne Mathes,
the 10-bed house ac-
commodated 57 women who
left their homes because of
batterings in the period
ending May 30. She says the
statistics clearly demon-
strate the need for such a
facility.

And though in its carly

stages women in the house
were primarily referred from
Vancouver, about 50 per
cent of women using the
home now to escape
physical or emotional abuse
from their husbands are
from the North Shore.

This, says the coordinator,
justifies the creation of such
a home on the North Shore
and virtually assures future

funding from the Depart-
ment of Human Resources
who had insisted on a six-
month trial period.

Though the occupancy
level has averaged 90 per
cent, there have been
various times when the
house has been completely
full, with the result that
during the November-May
period the house refused 92
cases involving a total of 221
women and children.

However, Mathes says
women are never just turned
away and are always
referred to some other
centre or resource for help.

The shelter has had a two-
fold function, doubling as a

centre for abused wives who
can stay there for periods of
up to 30 days, as well as an
emergency shelter for
homeless women who need
accommodation on an
immediate and short-term
basis.

Combining the
categories of occupants,
Emity Murphy House ac-
commodated 71 women,
ranging in age from 17 to 62,
during its first six months,
About 60 -per cent of the
women were aged 20-29 and
about 40 per cent of the
children were between one
and three.

two

CONTINUED ON PAGE C2

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