BC Society of Transition Houses

Empowering Women and Children to Build Safe, Independent Futures

The BC Society of Transition Houses (BCSTH) supports 136 member organizations across B.C. that serve over 18,000 women, children, and youth fleeing violence each year. In 2019, they launched the Bursary Fund to reduce financial barriers women face after experiencing violence—providing direct support for education, employment, and small business needs without requiring repayment. 

From 2019-2023, BCSTH has facilitated seven Bursary Fund application rounds and distributed $330,685 to 120 women and their 170 children. Notably, 75 percent of women served through the fund have children. Combined with the wraparound shelter and housing support offered by BCSTH member programs, the Bursary Fund helps women and children build safe, meaningful, and productive lives.

Advancing the Bursary Fund’s Impact

SVP Vancouver’s Discovery Team: Monika Garg, Cathy Brown, Nicole Geyer, Helen Stortini, and Sohee Kim heard from BCSTH that a key opportunity was to strengthen fund development for the Bursary Fund, ensuring long-term sustainability and impact. In response, SVP approved a 3-year Series A grant and is partnering with BCSTH to enhance fund development while building broader organizational capacity in the following areas:

• Improving applicant experience, including streamlining the application process and expanding eligible expense criteria to further empower recipients  
• Enhancing communications and storytelling to engage more donors and stakeholders
• Developing social impact evaluation to better measure and articulate outcomes
• Improving IT systems to support applicant processing, program delivery and evaluation

Combined with the wraparound shelter and housing support offered by BCSTH member programs, this support for the Bursary Fund will help BCSTH continue to break down barriers for women and children fleeing violence—creating pathways to safer, more empowered futures.

Read our introduction and visit BC Society of Transition Houses’s website to learn more.