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Tessa’s Home is an 8 part series running until December 27th.  To listen to the audio backgrounder from CHRI, click below. Miss previous...

Texture, colour, pattern, meaning… OIM is excited to extend an invitation to friends and community members for the up-coming Passion 4...

“It happened again. I have to leave,” she told me in a panic. Laura had called me several times that week. She was always in a panic...

I was talking with someone recently who had obtained housing. They have been on the street since their early teens—both sleeping on the...

This episode of ‘Stories from the Street’ is a little different, because it is not a verbatim story told by a street-friend. Instead,...

Today I lost another piece of my heart.  That’s what I feel when I meet someone who just makes me want to weep. Today I met...

This past Wednesday, Ottawa experienced what I hope was the last winter storm of the year (fingers crossed!). It was windy, snowy and...

I met Ashley last summer. She had just left her parents house and was staying at a downtown shelter. Like many other youth who first come...

We came in this morning to find a note from one of the outreach teams that was out last night.  The team had come across a friend in need...

So much has transpired since Susan Brandt and Katrine Coward filled  a couple of knapsacks with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and...

Recently Moira sent me something that she knew would intrigue me.  It is a picture of a piece of pottery that was broken and then...

Have you heard the story about the little boy who shared his lunch with a homeless man?  The little boy had found the older man in a park...

Volunteering with OIM has introduced me to many new experiences, some sad, but most of them great! One defies categorization, however....

…for some of our street friends at least: from December 20 or 23 to the end of January.  It’s the longest time of the year to make your...

The aroma of turkey and all the traditional trimmings wafted from the kitchen at drop-in this week.  Nothing says ‘come, sit and enjoy’...

Molly’s worker called the office late yesterday afternoon.  Molly is one of our many individuals living in Ottawa that struggle to...

Often times when people hear that I work with the homeless, they like to engage in a conversation about whether or not our society should...

Four weeks after Christmas and you are late! Yes, we are, with good intention, for several reasons: right around the time of Christmas,...

There’s been no shortage of bad news about homelessness in our city.  Ottawa did very poorly on the last Alliance to End Homelessness...

I’m so proud of Tammi!  She has had a long time addiction to crack cocaine…somewhere around fifteen years I think.  Like many of the...