On Nov. 30 the RMAA U15A Crossfield Renegades hosted a charity hockey game to raise awareness of domestic violence and funds for a new overnight shelter in Olds called “Kirsten’s Place,” named after Kirsten Gardener, a resident of Bowden who was murdered by her boyfriend in 2021.
Once built, Kirsten’s Place will be the only overnight domestic shelter between Red Deer and Calgary.
Kirsten’s story is all too common in Alberta, and the fact we do not have more facilities in place to help women attempting to flee domestic violence is an outrage. There are 30 shelters currently in place in Alberta with about 2,750 beds, but the rate of domestic violence in Alberta, according to Statistics Canada, is 535 incidents for every 100,000 residents. In 2022, the latest statistics, there were 129,876 victims of police-reported family violence and 117,093 victims of intimate partner violence in Alberta.
In 2023, the Alberta Council of Women's Shelters (ACWS) reported a 10-year-high in women seeking shelter services in Alberta. According to their report, about 8,400 people sought help at shelters. However, the ACWS reported its members could not accommodate another 30,000 requests for admission.
This means there are still far too many women and their dependents trapped in home situations where their lives are in danger without the resources needed to reach safety.
In Kirsten Gardner’s case not even her family members knew what she suffered at home, but those family members want to try to ensure other women do not suffer the same fate simply because they have nowhere else to go by creating a new overnight women’s shelter with their own two hands.
If we as a community really feel we need to do more to help women suffering from domestic violence in our midst, then perhaps we should take a page out of the Gardner family's playbook.
