Sophie’s Path

A police officer called Victim Services Toronto after several residents violently attacked a woman in their building.

Sophie had arrived at the hospital — her eye bulging, raw, visibly damaged — but she left before being examined. No one knew where she was.

Our crisis team contacted one of the only people still in her life: her mother.

She didn’t welcome the call.

She’d been through this before — strangers offering help, making promises they couldn’t keep. But she agreed to talk.

That’s when we began to piece things together.

Sophie didn’t have a phone. She didn’t have a home. She was running scared.

She told her mother her attackers would kill her if she went back to the hospital. She was using drugs and couldn’t face withdrawal alone in an emergency ward. Her eye was infected, and she was in pain.

We explained that Sophie didn’t have to press charges to access our support. We told her mother that our crisis specialists had the skills and compassion to help Sophie get the urgent care she needed and the practical supports to get through.

A few days later, Sophie called.

We didn’t offer promises.
We showed up. We listened.
And we stayed – with her, and for her.

A VST Case Worker accompanied Sophie to the hospital, bringing food, clean clothes, and a phone. Her Case Worker advocated for withdrawal management so Sophie could undergo surgery without also going through painful withdrawal symptoms.

Sophie lost her eye. When she woke up, the pain and fear made her want to run. We understood the impulse. But we stayed, and so did she. 

We secured trauma-informed counselling. We found emergency housing, far from her attackers. We helped Sophie access immediate financial support for medication and food.

Sophie’s circumstances are still complex. Her future remains uncertain.

But now she has a tether — someone to call, someone who always shows up.

And that makes all the difference.