Our story
A home born of the courage of ordinary women who made an extraordinary choice
In 1986, a group of women took a founding step. They had no large offices, no substantial budget. They had a conviction that could no longer wait.
Domestic violence doesn't only strike a woman. It passes through an entire family, children who grow up in fear, dreams that fade one by one, self-confidence worn away under the weight of a voice that controls, a gaze that dominates, a door one no longer has the right to open alone. It is a silent wound that society had chosen, for far too long, not to see.
QuΓ©bec and immigrant women decided, together, to break this silence. Coming from here and elsewhere, speaking different languages, carrying different stories, they shared a single intolerance: the injustice done to women and their children.
With no other resource than their determination and their solidarity, they created something unique in the entire QuΓ©bec City region: the only shelter dedicated to immigrant and QuΓ©bec women victims of domestic violence. Not an office. Not an institution. A home with everything that word carries of warmth, safety, and belonging.
Forty years have passed. Hundreds of women have crossed this door, arriving without a network, without a language, without bearings, and leaving with a strength they didn't know they possessed. Children have grown up sheltered from what they should never have seen. Entire lives have been rewritten, because someone had decided that their story deserved a different ending.
This house still exists today because committed people chose to believe that one saved life is worth every effort. You can be one of them.
I want to get involved βOur mission
Being present, truly present
for those who have lost their voice
Fight against violence toward women and their children, work toward lasting social change, and offer services that are adapted, confidential and respectful, so that they can leave domestic violence safely, at their own pace, with their full dignity.
Since 1986, the House for Immigrant Women has been the only shelter in the QuΓ©bec City region entirely dedicated to immigrant and QuΓ©bΓ©coise women who are victims of domestic violence, and to their children. It is not an office. It is not a cold institution. It is a home with everything that word carries of warmth, of safety, and of humanity.
The women who walk through our door come from different horizons. They speak different languages, carry different beliefs, and live fears that do not all have the same face. We welcome them as they are β without judgment, without prejudice, with respect for their story, their culture and their rhythm. Because every woman deserves to be supported in her own language, starting from who she truly is.
When a woman reclaims her strength, an entire family rises with her. A child grows up differently. A community heals slowly, but surely.
Our work reaches toward two horizons at once. The first is immediate and deeply human: this woman, today, regaining confidence in herself and discovering a strength she did not know she had. The second is slower, but just as necessary: building a society where domestic violence is never again minimized, tolerated, or invisible.
Because the promotion of equality between women and men is not an abstract idea. It is a concrete, daily commitment that takes shape in every conversation, in every act of support, in every life rebuilt here, within these walls.
The House for Immigrant Women is a feminist community organization, non-profit. For forty years, this conviction has never wavered: equality between women and men, and the end of violence against women and children, are causes that belong to all of society, to families, institutions, businesses, governments, and every citizen who chooses to believe in them.
How we intervene
Walking alongside every woman in her language, at her pace, with her story
At the House, we do not place ourselves above the women we support. Our counsellors walk alongside them, sharing their own lived experiences, their understanding of the realities that immigrant and QuΓ©bΓ©coise women face. It is in this exchange, as equals, that a true alliance is born.
We create concrete spaces where women can reclaim their power community life gatherings, moments of informal exchange, opportunities to speak and to truly be heard. Because finding your voice often begins with a single conversation, in a place where you finally feel safe.
They arrive alone. They leave with a community. That may be the greatest gift we can offer.
We encourage every woman to find her place in the life of her community to learn, to get involved, to contribute in her own way. These first steps of social presence are, for many of them, the beginning of a life that belongs to them once again, a life built on their own choices.
Cultural differences are not an obstacle. They are our starting point.
Every woman who crosses our threshold arrives with her own story: her values, her beliefs, her heritage, her way of seeing the world and making sense of what she is living through. Cultural belonging profoundly shapes how a woman perceives violence, the resources available to her, and the people who can help. Our intercultural approach fully acknowledges this we do not intervene despite differences, we intervene through them.
Our intervention is grounded in respect for the whole person: her worldview, her values, her specific needs. Every woman may keep her cultural heritage, her beliefs, her sense of belonging in a spirit of mutual respect and constant listening. Because one thing never changes: violence against women and children is never acceptable, regardless of culture.
Unconditional respect We respect every woman in her values, her beliefs, her orientation, her pace and her decisions always.
Welcome without judgment We intervene without prejudice, without judgment, in complete and unconditional confidentiality.
Believing in every woman We believe in her strengths and her capacities, even when she can no longer see them herself. Our role: to show her they are still there.
Solidarity among women We cultivate solidarity through the sharing of common experiences because there is something profoundly healing about no longer feeling alone.