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Cynthia Williams, Human Development Coordinator, Gender Affairs Department "In terms of the work that we do with the safe spaces. These are organizations independent of government. And so we're grateful for the partnership that we've built over the years with them. And so they provide the housing itself, but we provide additional, needs, for example, the provision of food, transportation to and from, if they need medical services, psychosocial services, then we're the ones who provide." "In terms of the question why government doesn't have its own, it's something that in the past we've explored. And, you know, when it comes to the, the number of persons, it's something that we have to really look at because a lot of times when you are in safe spaces, it really has to be a place that people are protected." "And so what we're finding in terms from the experience that we have here at the department is, what they actually might need more is **transition homes**, where they have that flexibility to leave and be able to also try and **search for employment**, because a lot of the persons that we do support unfortunately don't have employment. So we have to also support them through a process to gain skills if they don't have any, to identify places of employment, so that they can secure a job." "And even for some of the ones that we've secured, employment are supported in building their businesses a micro, medium and micro business. We also don't just cut it off at the very we give a time frame. And then we if we establish that, you know, they can manage on their own, we work with them on **budgeting** as well so that they able to manage whatever resources, but they are not cut off immediately." "Like what the individual, indicated, we have a **time frame** where we work with them to establish whether they are able to survive on their own without having to recourse to not providing a food for their child or their children, because they have to pay rent."
