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Overview
Sheway is a community outreach program for childbearing women and their children who live in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. It provides flexible, non-judgmental, and nurturing services and uses a women centered, harm reduction approach to support women’s self-determination, choices and empowerment. Sheway also offers respect and understanding of First Nations culture, history, and tradition. The program’s goals are to:
- help women access prenatal care and a range of other supports during pregnancy
- provide education, referral and support to women to help them reduce risk behaviour (particularly the reduction or abstinence from alcohol and drug use during pregnancy)
- support mothers in their capacity as parents and caregivers
- promote the health, nutrition and development of children born to women accessing prenatal care at Sheway in the period up to 18 months following birth
Program staff work with the women to help them develop the information, skills and confidence that they need to care for them and their children. Program activities include: nutritional support; drop in activities; transportation; the provision of personal hygiene products, clothes, cribs, toys and car seats; outreach services; recreational and creative
programming; and professional support (e.g., postnatal medical and nursing care, assistance in accessing social and financial supports, nutrition counselling and support, alcohol and drug counselling, harm reduction services, support in developing parenting skills, advocacy on housing and legal issues and referrals to community supports and transportation to other services).
An evaluation of the Sheway program highlighted improvements among program participants with regards to: access to prenatal and delivery care, nutritional status, substance misuse, action on sexually transmitted disease and other health concerns, housing status, parenting and custody issues, healthy birth weight, connections to other social supports and living conditions.
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