Blankets for Moncton offers support for women in crisis

A local organization called Blankets for Moncton that helps provide support to people in need is expanding its services to help women escaping domestic abuse.

READ MORE: Support to Single Parents closes Moncton office

Their goal is to fill a gap left behind by the closure of Support to Single Parents last spring.

Nadine Lipton from Blankets for Moncton said the organization is providing classroom space for a program called “Changing Patterns for Rebuilding a New You” with the hope of making resources more readily available to women in crisis.

“We want to make sure that the community was not lacking these courses because they spent so long getting them ready and we wanted to make sure that everybody who needs these courses or wants to take them are still able to take them,” said Lipton, who is a survivor of domestic abuse herself.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "We want to make sure that the community was not lacking these courses because they spent so long getting them ready and we wanted to make sure that everybody who needs these courses or wants to take them are still able to take them," said Lipton, who is a survivor of domestic abuse herself.

After more than three decades in operation, Support to Single Parents was forced to close its doors last June due to a lack of funding.

Since the closure, relationship and parent-support programs previously offered by the organization have been scattered among other organizations across the Greater Moncton area.

Barbara Aubie, who taught the domestic abuse support course at Support to Single Parents for more than 10 years, is grateful to have a new home.

“I think the biggest challenge is that when it was though Support to Single Parents it was the agency that promoted the class,” Aubie said.

READ MORE: Why beauty professionals are being trained to prevent domestic abuse

She said Blankets for Moncton’s close ties with the community and other non-profit agencies in the city will help her to reach out to more women in crisis.

“It is a nice way to get the word out that it exists here.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "It is a nice way to get the word out that it exists here."

Aubie will start teaching the program at the Blankets for Moncton location on 180 Edinburgh Dr. on Jan. 24 and said she hopes to expand and offer new courses in the coming year.

Lipton said many of the people she helps provide with blankets and clothing are women coming out of abusive relationships, so opening up her doors to programs geared to helping women in these types of situations was a good fit.