North Bay sexual violence support centre struggling to keep doors open
A sexual violence support centre called Amelia Rising in North Bay is struggling to keep the doors open and a petition to save it has been launched.
"We have about 500 people who have signed the petition and there’s multiple people across Ontario who are on board because this affects everyone," said Amelia Rising executive director Erica Lougheed.
Campaign on to keep the doors of Amelia Rising open in North Bay for sexual violence survivors. (Supplied)
"Really, the 'Save Our Centre' is a look at the next three years and how it doesn’t look good at all and things need to change immediately."
Lougheed told CTV News the organization is running on the same amount of funding it has been receiving for the past 30 years.
"We are operating on mid-1990s funding, it does not make any sense," she said.
"Services continue to reduce, year over, year over, over year. Staff reduces, what we can provide to the community reduces. Our geographical area and who we can reach and how we reach them just reduces year after year."
- Want more North Bay news? Visit CTVNewsNorthernOntario.ca's North Bay news page
- Download the CTV News app now and get local alerts on your device
- Get local breaking news and updates sent to your email inbox
Most sexual violence victims, 95 per cent, do not go to police for various reasons, but North Bay Police Chief Scott Tod said his service and Amelia Rising do work closely together a lot.
"I’m very concerned of the fact that if Amelia Rising ceases to exist in our community, who will help the victims of sexual violence who don’t wish to report to police," said Tod.
"The counselling and education that they do and supporting victims, to me, is unparalleled by any other organization in our community."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Large numbers of New York City police officers begin entering Columbia University campus
Large numbers of New York City police officers began entering the Columbia University late Tuesday as dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters remained on the campus.
Poilievre kicked out of Commons after calling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau 'wacko'
Testy exchanges between the prime minister and his chief opponent ended with the Opposition leader and one of his MPs being ejected from the House of Commons on Tuesday -- and the rest of Conservative caucus walking out of the chamber in protest.
Baby, grandparents among 4 people killed in wrong-way police chase on Ontario's Hwy. 401
A police chase which started with a liquor store robbery in Bowmanville Monday night ended in tragedy some 20 minutes later when a suspect fleeing police entered Highway 401 in the wrong direction and caused a pileup which killed an infant and the child's grandparents, as well as the suspect, investigators say.
Freeland leaves capital gains tax change out of coming budget implementation bill, here's why
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland will be tabling yet another omnibus bill to pass a sweeping range of measures promised in her April 16 federal budget, though left out of the legislation will be the government's proposed capital gains tax change.
Sword-wielding man attacks passersby in London, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring 4 others
A man wielding a sword attacked members of the public and police officers in a northeast London suburb Tuesday, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring four other people, British authorities said.
Man dies after suffering cardiac arrest while waiting in ER, widow wants investigation
When an ambulance took David Lippert to the hospital in March of 2023, the 68-year-old Kitchener, Ont., executive was hoping to find out why he was feeling weak and unable to walk. Some 24 hours later, he was found unresponsive in the ER.
CSE says it shared information on Chinese hacking of parliamentarians in 2022
While several MPs and senators say they were only recently made aware of China-backed hackers targeting them, the Communications Security Establishment, one of Canada's intelligence agencies, says it shared information about the incident with parliamentary officials in June of 2022.
WATCH Arnold Schwarzenegger spotted filming in Elora, Ont.
The name of the project has not been officially released although it’s widely believed to be the Netflix series FUBAR.
Eviction for landlord's use was legitimate, despite owners' partial move, B.C. court rules
A B.C. judge has upheld the eviction of a family from their North Vancouver townhouse, finding that the landlords did not take an unreasonable amount of time to move into the home after the tenants vacated it.