Community Service
Marguerite's Place
Marguerite's Place
The Rotary Club St. John's Northwest is pleased to work with the St. John's Status of Women's Council in support of wonderful project called Marguerite's Place.
The vision for Marguerite's Place is the provision of a wide range of services and programs for women and their children in St. John's and the Avalon region. The new facility will also provide women-only housing for women over 30 yrs of age who have faced a multitude of complex issues and may be living in vulnerable situations. Marguerite's Place is a community project led by the St. John's Status of Women Council. No similar facility exists in Newfoundland and Labrador for women over 30.
The Rotary Club St. John's Northwest has appropriated a $25,000 contribution towards the project (the funds to be dispersed once the project secures the additional funding necessary to move ahead).
Marguerite's Place is name after Marguerite Dyson, an Inuit woman who was a cheerful volunteer at the St. John's Women's Centre. Marguerite lived in an unsafe boarding house in downtown St. John's and in 1984, at age 51, she was murdered. Her vulnerable situation and positive personality inspired the concept for Marguerite's Place.
The Marguerite's Place Plan is to build a new structure designed to provide:
- 8 independent apartment units;
- programming areas to provide supportive services for residents as well as the wider community; and
- offices & gathering/meeting space for the St. John's Women's Centre and St. John's Status of Women Council.
The cost of the entire project is estimated at $1.49 million, of which approx. $1 million has been conditionally approved through Federal and Provincial Government housing programs. The remainder of funds is being sought from other sources, and a public fund raising campaign is ongoing to fulfill the funding requirements. Operational funding is being sought from various sources including the Provincial Government as well as other non-governmental entities. Land has been secured on Cashin Avenue Extension in St. John's and construction is scheduled to begin in Fall 2009.
For more information, please visit: http://www.margueritesplace.ca/