The Organization serves the following population:

Shifra Homes serves vulnerable young women who are pregnant and homeless, primarily between the ages of 16 to 30. The women we support often come from challenging backgrounds, including experiences with poverty, homelessness, food insecurity, mental health issues, substance abuse, human trafficking, and abuse. These women represent a diverse demographic, including those from various ethnicities and cultural backgrounds. Shifra Homes is dedicated to providing a safe, nurturing environment where these women receive the care, support, and resources they need to rebuild their lives and create a better future for themselves and their children.

 How does this charity serve Burlington/Halton directly:

Shifra Homes (with 3 homes and 17 beds) serves Burlington and the Halton region directly by providing shelter and essential support services to young, homeless, pregnant women and mothers (aged 16-30) in the community. As the only maternity residence in the region, Shifra Homes offers safe housing, food, and access to vital healthcare services for vulnerable women. We provide complete wrap-around services that includes mental health support, pre- and post-natal care, addiction recovery, food support, and educational assistance. Shifra Homes also works closely with local healthcare providers, social services, and other community organizations to ensure these women receive the comprehensive care they need. Our focus on empowerment and education helps women in the Halton region break cycles of poverty and homelessness, contributing to stronger, healthier families and communities. By providing these vital services, Shifra Homes directly addresses critical gap sin support for vulnerable populations in Burlington and Halton, ensuring that these young women have the sources to heal, grow, and thrive within their own community.

 Our residents represent a broad-spectrum of women facing economic barriers, discrimination, homelessness, violence, and human trafficking. Past residents have represented the chronically homeless, Indigenous, racialized minorities and newcomers. We believe in equity of access to our services and housing.

 The donated funds would be used for:

The requested funds would promote the health, safety and well- being of vulnerable mothers and babies. This would enable us to reduce hunger and malnutrition. This helps ensure that we provide stable supplies of healthy nutritious food for those in crisis. Most of the pregnant women that we admit into the homes have suffered from food insecurity and have been hungry.

Our goal is to continuously provide healthy nutritious food to vulnerable homeless, young mothers and their developing babies. The babies are extremely vulnerable in this situation because they are defenceless. The dietary choices these mothers make directly impacts their physiological and cognitive developments. A child who is severely malnourished during its formative period can have life-long cognitive and physiological impacts.

The funding will ensure that we always are able to provide food for the residents and babies. We also provide food to our former residents during the first year that they have transitioned back into the community.

Support is urgently required now due to the escalating demand for our services, as evidenced by our rapidly growing waiting list, which has reached 150 individuals. This unprecedented surge in demand shows the pressing need for immediate intervention to address the issue of homelessness among pregnant women in our community. Without intervention and adequate support, these women are at increased risk of experiencing adverse health outcomes, including preterm birth, low birth weight, and maternal complications. A rehabilitated mother that provides their child with a loving parental foundation can overcome generational negligence. The innocent babies are the second intended beneficiary of our programs. If we desire a safe and secure community, we must first nurture and protect the vulnerable mothers and babies. The more dysfunctional cycles we break and mothers we rehabilitate, the stronger the community will be in the future. Children are the creators of our future communities.

The Organization’s current sources of funding are:

Shifra does not have any regular stream of funding. We have to fundraise 100% of the funds required to operate and provide all of the services and supports.

• Grants
• Private Donations
• Corporate Donations
• Businesses
• Support from Community

Comments:

There are no other programs or initiatives that are equivalent to Shifra Homes in scope or service structure. We are a unique service provider in the community. There are no other maternity homes in the Halton Region. We serve the underprivileged, vulnerable, and unreported young women and children who fall through the cracks. What makes our initiative unique is that we not only serve these young mothers, but we are in effect creating a healthy child and concomitantly a healthy Halton. The program service structure is unique because our rehabilitation structure focuses holistically on reducing poverty, homelessness, and mental illness while providing safety and security for the young women and babies.