Yesterday, we held our annual memorial service at drop-in to remember those in our street community who passed away in 2012.  Often times...

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...

Suzanne comes to the drop-in every week without fail. Her story is similar to many others: she immigrated to Canada several years ago and...

It was -27 degrees last night! Sweet merciful crud that’s cold! But the Wednesday night Outreach crew, appropriately bundled up, had a...

What a cold start to January!  As the temperature drops I am very thankful for my warm coat, gloves and most of all, a warm place to go...

Recently I had the privilege of participating in a One Homeless Night activity with OIM staff (go Moira!) and a group of teens from The...

This past May, Mark, a long-time member of the art group, was in a terrible accident. He was struck by a car which caused severe head...

As I looked around the room as lunch was in full-swing yesterday, I couldn’t help but feel very blessed to be surrounded by great 39...

I recently had to take a six month break (at least, I hope it’ll only be six months) from street outreach because of health problems.  It...

When asked about the Passion 4 Youth Arts Program, I generally find myself bragging about the youth I work with, and going on and on...

So last week the Wednesday night group got SOAKED (during that big rainstorm) on our evening walk-around. I mean drenched. I’ve seriously...

Leo is one of the ’rounders’ at OIM (‘been around a long time) and comes weekly to catch up and connect with our people.  Life was very...

OIM hosted our annual Easter Dinner this week.  Over 40 volunteers  served 150 dinners to our street community.  As I stood back and...

One of the most amazing privileges of working with people is the opportunities we have to build relationships. Over the past years there...

As I write this, you should know that I am really, really angry!  I am angry as I witnessed and was even an unwilling participant of...

“Do you have room for one more?” It was the end of the day at our drop-in and I was getting ready to clean up the foot care station. I...

I can’t help but feel a profound sense of sadness and tragedy some nights during outreach.  But, once in a while you stumble upon an...

Well, it wasn’t exactly bright and shining.  It was more like a dull and well-worn silver key, but the glow that came off the face of our...