Women supporting women. The Cochrane Lioness Club has been making a difference in our community and proudly serving the Cochrane area for 42 years.

Yesterday the local Lioness Club presented Big Hill Haven Women's Shelter with a hefty cheque to help them better serve local women and children who are victims of domestic violence.

Fund Development & Public Relations Officer for Big Hill Haven, Tara McFadden says that donations like these go a long way to providing a safe haven for victims of abuse.

"The Cochrane Lioness' reached out and that they're contributing or donating $2,000 to our cause," says McFadden. "Donations like this make it all possible. This year alone we've been able for the first time ever to provide our own housing solution and that opened up in the middle of August and we're going to be expanding our hours of service right away as we bring on another outreach worker."

McFadden says that the additional resources and extended hours are coming at an extremely crucial time and that there has been an increase in the demand for the services that Big Hill Haven provides.

"Domestic abuse was an epidemic before the pandemic hit," says McFadden. "So we are certainly seeing an increase in demand for our services, but because of the support of Cochrane and our donors and supporters we've actually been able to expand our services, help more and donations like this make that possible."

McFadden says that during the month of November domestic violence awareness is being brought to the forefront across the country.

"November is actually Domestic Violence Awareness Month," says McFadden. "It's a really great opportunity for us to raise the profile and really start to talk about that as a community. As we all know, you can't solve anything until you recognize it's a problem."

Big Hill Haven's mission statement is that a safe tomorrow starts today, and they are "committed to ending the cycle of abuse and violence by raising awareness through prevention, intervention, and education."