Lauren McKeon
Northern News Services
Published Friday, July 25, 2008

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Many people see only one side of homelessness and addiction in Yellowknife's downtown core, says Monique Nind. And that side is a dismal one - one Nind knows well.

The 38-year-old, born in Edmonton and adopted in Yellowknife a year later, has been on and off the streets, and in and out of shelters since she was 16. But she's doing her best to show herself - and others - a positive side.

The journey has been a hard one.

"It's scary," she said. "Every day is a new day. Every day I try to do something for myself - not to show for anybody else, but for me."

While the credit to turn her life around belongs to Nind, she said she was helped along the way through the great efforts of staff at the Centre for Northern Families. Until recently, Nind has called the centre's emergency shelter her home.

She's not the only one. On average the centre can house 20 women or more, a number that fluctuates in the winter months. The last available statistics for the centre, 2006-2007, show an annual total of 800 women passed through the emergency shelter, generating 5,910 "bed nights."

These women, reports the shelter, are often using and abusing alcohol, street drugs, prescription medication and hairspray. Many have mental illnesses, including post-traumatic stress disorder, suicidal thoughts, borderline personality and clinical depression. Others have violent partners - in one month women staying at the emergency shelter received 1,800 calls from inmates at the North Slave Correctional Facility.

While the centre itself has been around for just under two decades, Nind's tale there began five years ago. That was when she first arrived after putting her son in foster care - for his own sake - after her life took an unplanned-for turn.

Family breakdown put her on the streets when she was younger, and more than 15 years later she was in the middle of family breakdown again.

"I never thought I'd come here (to the shelter) in my life, that's what shocked me," she said.

It turned out to be a good shock. Though Nind has checked in and out of the shelter more times than she cares to remember she is finally finding the results she hoped for those five long years ago.

"Now I'm finally gaining some peace in my life," she said. "I'm gaining some control and some respect."

Two months ago Nind moved out of the shelter and into transitional housing, which is owned by the centre and used by women who have the capacity to live independently and continue to make positive choices. In Nind's case, and most others, this means the ability to stay sober and enter the work force.

For Nind that means finally pursuing a career in the making since 1987. While Nind has been painting and drawing for more than two decades, it wasn't until a few months ago that she began showing people the results.

Nind is working on two pieces of artwork for the centre and a calendar for 2009. She will soon start pitching her work to local galleries and is thinking about starting her own website in the future. She has already sold a few paintings and given many more away.

The centre has recently begun a new daily initiative trying to get women at the shelter to talk about whatever is on their mind, said Lemlem Girmatsion, who helps head health promotion at the centre.

In addition to helping out with cooking, Nind will attend some sessions as much as she can.

"If I keep coming back to share what I'm doing in a positive light - that I'm being successful and doing what I really want to do and staying off the drugs and alcohol - if I can help even one person from here to do the same thing, that's what I'm excited about."