Atira Women's Resource Society

What you do is criminal. The state of Empress Rooms is appalling and inhumane.

This place has been one of the worst organizations I’ve ever dealt with. Almost two years ago I had gone to them for help with the legal advocacy program I had first spoken to a wonderful advocate who no longer works for this program. She was great but by the time I had to make my second appointment she was no longer working there. I then had two bad experiences first one the lawyer/legal advocate seemed to be present and provide good advice for our initial 2-3 meetings over the phone then I had horrible experiences from then on for our almost two years I had a legal advocate who would forget our appointments were even scheduled always running 2-3 hours late it became so bad I was thinking why is there even an appointment time. I always had to repeat myself over the course of a year and a half it was if she never took notes or listened once to anything I had to say. I was beyond patience with her at first and unfortunately because I had no other options I stuck with her. She eventually told me that they would be hiring be more people and that she would pass me on to her colleague because she didn’t have enough “time for me” and that her colleague would be a better fit. I was so patience with the original advocate that I had waited three months to see if she had heard from the police yet and she told me that she was on vacation for a month and that’s she not back till the end of the month that we would have to meet then. I asked her why I wasn’t told she would be away for awhile in the event I needed her and why the message that she had promised to pass on to the police for me right after our phone call was simply forgotten about. From that incident it became very clear that things weren’t being written down and that I wasn’t a priority in her file. Her behaviour then continued to become worse and worse. When I finally agreed to having to try the advocate after being retraumatized consistently by the advocate not listening to my story or trying to understand/get a grasp on this file. After a year and three months I was even more devastated the advocate was moving slower then police does. Once I received the advocate she seemed okay on the first day we met although I felt hesitant to work with her even after my experience I was promised many times by advocates that she would be a better fit and has more experience in my field of law I need help with as well as her own lives experience. I tried to give her a chance she had immediately suggested I work with an officer who was cold as ice and wanted nothing to do with my file I told her this many times and her colleagues that was previously assigned to me without even asking she was trying to set up a meeting with me and this constable. I still gave her a chance after that because she said she didn’t know / hear from her colleague what the situation was. Then I had another incident where she went away for almost a week without notice or checking in first her and had set up a meeting with a new constable. She had also cc’d her co worker who was not apart of my file in my email talking about my file by “accident. ” It was clear this woman lacked empathy and care. I had waited two weeks come to find out that the meeting with the officer was cancelled I had send her multiple emails for her to reply when she was back. After that I had sent her my 15 page statement so she catch up on what her co worker was suppose to fill her on but never did. I didn’t want to have to keep sharing my story to strangers it was long painful and difficult this woman made it worse by not reading it before we met then months later still not reading it all or knowing big important details that she was suppose to help advocate for me. We had many follow up emails and calls after she had still forgotten the things I said never took notes and the one time she did take notes it was wrong information that she had to confirm with me she had confirmed things with me multiple times and about multiple events but each time she had never followed up with the phone calls she made the police process slower

If you're on hard drugs, maybe it's a good place to live. Others, and that it's horrific for women and children. Just absolutely horrible and children should never be living with drug addicts, but they put both of them together. Shame on you atira shame on you.

I stayed with Atira back in 2014 and there was another resident bothering me and when I told her to leave me alone the staff overheard me and came charging out of the office acting as if we were having a fist fight. They called the police and had me removed and wouldn't allow me back into the building to retrieve my belongings. They brought a black garbage bag with about HALF my stuff inside, and when I asked for the rest, they told me to leave or they'd call the police.
It had to have been staff that kept my personal effects because they were locked inside a locker the entire time I was outside my room.
The staff that work in these places, sadly, are barely off the street themselves and clearly have no training or morals. These services are necessary, but continue to fail because of the staff we hire to run them. Avoid this place like the plague. Trust me, the sidewalk is better.