WHAT DOES CHRYSALIS DO?
For over 30 years, Chrysalis has provided long-term residential care and supports to self-identified women seriously impacted by addiction, violence, poverty, homelessness, exploitation and untreated concurrent mental/medical health issues
 
WHAT IS UNIQUE ABOUT CHRYSALIS?
 
A women’s-only comprehensive continuum of residential care:
that includes early, post-detox, first-stage stabilization into recovery from problematic substance use; semi-independent living with transitional supports in second stage homes; and independent living through a subsidy for market housing. We’re the only women’s organization of its kind in BC.
Feminist-Based, Holistic Care:
Chrysalis recognizes the intersections between women’s experience of addiction & their experiences of poverty, violence & exploitation.
 
We recognize gender-based systemic barriers, from simple resource availability to
medical bias:
  • ratio of detox beds for men vs. detox beds for women is 6:1
  • women are far more over-pathologized/over-medicated than men
 
Non-Institutional, Home-Like Environments:
By providing trauma informed environments that are beyond minimal, we reduce the added impacts of stigmas related to addiction and poverty. Women learn through experience that they deserve more than mere basic survival. They learn how to include nurturing self-care and comfort in their own recovery. They learn and discover their own extraordinary worth, and how to give it value.