Victory House ready to invite residents to take “Victory Lap”

By Rob Paul

When women find themselves in an impossible situation, they need the ability to feel safe and the support to push through. That was the basis for the idea for Victory House, to provide women in need with a place to go when they needed it most.

After living in Caledon for nearly 40 years and aiding other women when they were at their most vulnerable, Patricia Valliere, Victory House founder and Executive Director, knew more could be done to help with the healing process while providing an opportunity for meaningful change.

That's how the story of Victory House began.

It was a vision that is now leading to the creation of a transitional home for women and children in a time of crisis.

It has grown into a reality and attained charitable status thanks to the board that makes up the Victory House Association of Dufferin Caledon

(Valliere, Paul Reader, Debra Tigchelaar, and Al Tupper). 

With over 50 volunteers, the goal is to provide each woman at Victory House with coaching and a program designed to their own personal needs in areas such as budgeting, housing, legal support, childcare, resume building, or further education.

Women at Victory House, and those who graduate from it, will also have the ability to support one another through group work that looks at each individual's personal journey.

The entire purpose is to be the shoulder to lean on for the women who need it most in the Caledon community while empowering them to change their lives.

To help with the fundraising for Victory House, the group purchased Victory Lap Emporium, hoping to use the store as a way for community members to lend a helping hand by donating household items to be sold to benefit the project.

It hasn't been easy getting the Victory Lap store up and running with the constant changes and restrictions during the pandemic, but when they are ready to open again, Valliere thinks they'll be rolling thanks to the donations they've been receiving. 

“We picked up the keys and took possession of the store on November 11 and two weeks later we went into shutdown so we couldn't open,” she said. “Then earlier this year we did open with curbside for a few weeks and then we started an online store, but it was just too difficult to do.

“People were concerned about coming to the store, so that time around with the online store it was a little tougher, [and] we didn't really get into that. We are looking to do an online auction in the meantime somehow. We're trying to get people who know what to do with that because the biggest part of putting on an auction is getting the goods to put in the auction, and we have a store full of them.”

As Ontario begins to re-open with its first phase starting June 11, the hope is that people will be allowed to do in-store shopping at Victory Lap as soon as next week. 

“We're hoping we'll hear in the next little bit that we'll be able to be back to being open and that we can perhaps have up to five people in the store shopping, as well as one or two in the store who are volunteering in the store, but we won't know for sure what we can do until they tell us,” she said. 

Valliere says she is excited for what they'll be able to offer shoppers at Victory Lap, especially considering it's all for a good cause at the end of the day and will help lay the groundwork for what they hope becomes a staple of the Caledon community in Victory House

“The whole purpose of the Victory Lap Emporium is to support Victory House,” she said. “The plan was to open the store after we were up and running, but last year we figured there's a store here and it makes sense to open it now. We opened it and filled it within two weeks. There's been so many generous people donating and all kinds of beautiful things. We don't have a lot of space, so we don't have a lot of furniture and it's more of a focus on clothing and upper end house wear things.”

It's been nearly seven months since the official opening of the store and despite not being able to consistently make sales during the pandemic, Valliere says they've benefited in other ways thanks to all the donations from the community.

“We had to shut the doors so there was nothing we could do, and of course it's frustrating, but you know what, we've been able to do a lot of different things behind the scenes,” she said. “We actually had to shut off taking any more donations, that's how full the store is. Normally it's not a big enough store to take furniture, but we've even taken some—we've got some beautiful antique benches. We've got lots of high-end things—dinnerware, crystal. Anybody that comes into the store can't believe it and they go, ‘Oh, I didn't expect it to look like this.'”

As the Victory House project continues, they're making substantial progress and though there's no firm date of when everything will be up and running, the re-opening of Victory Lap will only help accelerate the work.

“We're hopefully close to coming to the final part of our construction at Victory House in the two-bedroom bridge house that we're doing,” she said. “It's a two-bedroom apartment that we're renovating in the existing house on the property at Caledon Hills Fellowship Baptist Church before we get into the big stone building. This is a way to get it going and get a couple of women in to get it started.”

Even if they haven't been to be open frequently throughout the pandemic, it's been a positive and overwhelming experience with the sheer number of volunteers who have been looking to help where they can with the store.

“When we were open for the few weeks, we could have two people in the store volunteering at a time and we were open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and we were so blessed with so many people coming in to volunteer. So many people wanted to volunteer in the store to be a part of it and help Victory House become a success.

“We have a woman who has taken on the responsibility of the volunteers, and she has people coming to us all the time asking what they can do to help—we've been very happy with the support. We just look at it as a gift from God that he knows when he wants this to happen and how, so if we just listen and wait and be patient it will happen.”

For more information on Victory House or to volunteer visit thevictoryhouse.ca/ and for more information on Victory Lap Emporium visit victory-house.square.site/.