For more than 40 years, Antigonish Women’s Resource Centre & Sexual Assault Services Association has been a place of safety, support and connection for women, youth and families in our community.
Now, with your support, we are raising $5 million to bring more wrap-around supports together under one roof.
A first-of-its-kind, one-door centre will ensure women and families can access coordinated wrap-around support in one safe, dignified and supportive place.
What
"One Door" Means
Walking through our door is not easy.
For many women, it’s one of the hardest steps they will ever take — a moment that takes courage, strength and deep vulnerability. At AWRCSASA, we understand what that step costs, and we honour it by working to ensure it’s the only door a woman needs to walk through.
One Door means she doesn’t have to do it again.
Instead of being sent from place to place — or asked to retell painful stories — women are met with coordinated, compassionate support, designed around their needs, their pace and their healing.
What Wrap-Around Support Looks Like
Under one roof, women can access the care, support and guidance they need—whether that’s:
- Support while fleeing domestic or family violence
- Medical care
- Trauma-informed therapy
- Legal guidance and advocacy
- Help navigating systems that feel overwhelming or unsafe
- Support with police statements, when needed, using the same equipment utilized by RCMP—reducing the need for women to retell their experience multiple times
Some women may need one service. Others may need several. Our role is to remove barriers and walk alongside each woman — every step of the way.
Building for the Future in Rural Nova Scotia
This $5 million investment is more than a building. It’s about strengthening services in a rural community where resources are often limited— ensuring survivors, families and future generations have access to support close to home.
We’re creating a net-zero, fully accessible space that embodies our commitment to community and sustainability. This new centre will be a hub for care, connection and collaboration—helping people heal, educating and empowering our community and fostering a stronger, healthier future for rural Nova Scotia.
Why Now?
Because building the new centre is building hope.
This new centre is more than an expansion — it’s a response to the realities women and families face every day, and to a growing need our current space can no longer keep pace with.
It’s needed in a world where:
- Gender-based violence continues to impact far too many lives
- Survivors are working to rebuild their lives after trauma
- Access to primary care and medical services is increasingly limited
- Newcomers are seeking connection, belonging and community
- And many other essential supports are needed to meet the evolving needs of women, youth and families in our region
These realities are powerful reminders of why our work matters.
We provide wrap-around support at every stage — before, during and after crisis, change and healing. Each year, we support thousands, and that number will only continue to rise. The time to act is now.
This centre is an investment in the future of our community — and a place where someone’s loved one, a sister, daughter, mother or friend, can begin again.
This new centre will:
- Expand programs in women’s health, crisis response, violence prevention and youth leadership.
- Offer trauma-informed therapy and crisis support.
- Enhance women’s health services through a dedicated medical clinic.
- Feature a dedicated Health & Wellness space, offering supports for menopause, postpartum depression, parenting and more.
- Provide frontline advocacy for navigating justice systems.
- Assist with securing safe, stable housing through partnerships with local housing organizations.
- Support healing after sexual violence.
- Unite crisis response, advocacy and survivor support under one roof.
The Impact
This new facility is a critical step forward in advancing women’s health and safety in our region. Purposefully designed to meet the growing and diverse needs of our community, the space will allow us to expand and strengthen the services we provide every day — now and into the future.
An expanded Lindsay’s Health Centre for Women
This expanded space will offer enhanced clinical support and private consultation rooms, ensuring compassionate, confidential care tailored to the unique needs of every woman.
A new Health & Wellness space
Guided by our Wellness Coordinator, this will be a welcoming hub for women’s health and well-being. Featuring a Menopause Doula and Birth Doula, it will offer workshops, information sessions and ongoing support for women at every stage of life.
Respectful, Private Care for Survivors
A dedicated, private space for our Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) Program to provide victims with safe, respectful and confidential care during vulnerable moments.
Collaborative Care Hub
A space for women’s support workers, trauma therapists and violence prevention educators, all housed in the main building, enabling collaboration while honouring the privacy and dignity of our clients.
Spaces for Hope, Healing and Rebuilding
Versatile rooms for trauma therapy, violence prevention education and youth programming, creating space for education, growth and healing.
A Space for Belonging
An immigrant support office, providing newcomers with accessible, safe and welcoming services tailored to their needs.
A Room For Community & Connection
A warm, welcoming community room designed to reduce social isolation and foster meaningful connections. Programs like Together Tuesdays—featuring group activities such as paint nights and music therapy—will thrive here, offering opportunities for joy, creativity and community engagement.
Senior Safety & Support Office
Dedicated space for our new Senior Safety Coordinator, focused on supporting the older population, particularly those living in rural communities.
Explore Our Services
From health care and crisis response to education, advocacy and community programs—discover the full range of supports we offer at the Antigonish Women’s Centre.
Visit our main site >
Designing with purpose
We’re proud to partner with Passive Design Solutions, a leading Nova Scotia firm known for its expertise in sustainable architecture, to help bring our vision to life.
Together, we are building a net-zero, fully accessible space designed to provide dignity, privacy and comprehensive care — a place where people can heal, connect and thrive, and where a stronger, healthier, safer community can grow for generations to come.
The design process is underway, with plans to break ground by the end of 2025. We hope to open our new centre and welcome the community by January 2027.
Campaign Cabinet
- Anita Stewart, Executive Director, The Antigonish Women’s Resource Centre & Sexual Assault Services Association
- Jennifer Desmond, Student Equity Consultant, Strait Regional Centre for Education (SRCE)
- Adam Rodgers, Managing Lawyer, Nova Scotia Legal Aid
- Stephanie Hart, Registered Nurse currently completing her Nurse Practitioner studies at Dalhousie University.
- Barbara McLean, Former senior executive with the Toronto Police Service, and Co-Chair of The Antigonish Women’s Resource Centre & Sexual Assault Services Association
- Natalie Leonard, P.Eng, Consultant and Engineer, Founding Partner, Passive Design Solutions
- Amy Carver, Executive Director, St. Martha’s Regional Hospital Foundation
- Gillian Reid, Consultant and Founder of REID Ltd.