Spreading the Word

Each year The Ottawa Mission receives dozens of calls from students at the secondary and post-secondary levels wanting to learn more about what goes on at the shelter. Often this is part of completing an assignment on community organizations that help others, and sometimes it is curiosity about potential volunteer opportunities.

As a way of meeting this need for information, and at the same time spreading the word about the full range of services we offer, The Mission has begun a series of student outreach days, the first of which took place today. This morning we welcomed a group from the Police Foundations program at Algonquin College. They took part in an inter-active presentation, watched a video and went on a tour of the entire shelter.

When asked what they had learned about The Mission that they didn’t already know, it boiled down to the fact that, as we say in all our written literature, we are so much “more than a shelter”. They didn’t realize that we have a hospice where people who have nowhere else to go receive end of life care; they didn’t know that we offered education support and job training programs; they learned about the extent of our addiction and trauma treatment programs – and they left with a newfound appreciation of how The Mission has grown and evolved to meet the needs of our community.

We look forward to our next student engagement day in this series which is taking place next Thursday, October 29. If you are interesting in attending, please Contact Leila Jakubinek at 613-234-1144, ext. 236 for more information and to reserve your seat.