Shelter Pulse 

Shelter Pulse was created through a partnership between the Rural Development Network (RDN) and Mountain Rose Women’s Shelter Association (MRWSA). Rural women’s shelters had expressed the need for increased capacity for policy development and maintenance with a specific focus on trauma-informed and feminist lenses, and Shelter Pulse was created to address this. The project recognizes that many rural women’s shelters face barriers beyond their control as they are challenged with small budgets and minimal staff, resulting in administrative work often taking a back seat to client care. 

In collaboration with various rural VAW shelters across Canada, the Shelter Pulse project compiled an inventory of policies and practices and assessed strengths, gaps, and areas for improvement. From there, a baseline of policies and procedures was developed. Now housed on the Shelter Pulse Database, the policies and procedures are downloadable and adaptable to suit the unique needs of each shelter and community which they serve.  

If you work in women’s shelters or the gender-based violence sector, you are invited to check out the database and create an account at www.shelterpulse.ca.  

This project aimed to create a standard that will allow for all Canadian women’s shelters to be on the same page with respect to policy development, and have easy access to the best, most up-to-date set of policies by which to operate.