Community-based residential facilities (CBRFs)

Joe Morin: Hi, my name is Joe Morin. I am the Residential Coordinator at the Ikaarvik House, in Ottawa, Ontario. The mandate for the Ikaarvik House, as a CRF through John Howard Society of Ottawa is effective just humane responses to crime.

The Ikaarvik House is equipped with two wheelchair accessible rooms, with ramp and bathroom included on the first floor. We do have two living room areas, one situated downstairs and one situated upstairs in case people who are having issues with climbing the stairs. We offer a huge kitchen and dining room which guys are more or less cook together at certain meals. And the place itself currently can hold 20 residents at a time.

The Ikaarvik House is situated in the east end of Ottawa, which is in close proximity to St. Laurent shopping mall, Elmvale shopping mall which is the grocery stores. Bus routes are right outside our door and they link up to more or less anywhere in Ottawa that you have to go.

Our CRF, being specific to Indigenous and Inuit populations, we offer an Inuit Elder, who is in on a weekly basis, we offer an Inuk-speaking personal support worker on a daily basis.

The Ikaarvik House, as indicated, we offer a carving program, we do have a carving area out back, meaning it's a carving tent in which we offer a place to store the materials for guys, tools, and it can accommodate three to four guys at a time.

We have a partnership with TI, which is Tungasuvvingat Inuit, here in Ottawa, in which they come in and they do a weekly program, maintenance phase if you will, for substance abuse and trauma. And through them, we also include one-to-one counseling on-site. We also have video teleconference for individuals to call home and check in with family. We also offer personal support in which individuals are unsure how to get to certain destinations we will actually offer a chance to ride with them and show the bus routes and so forth.

Tracey Cortes: Hello, I'm Tracey Cortes the Executive Director at House of Hope; we are currently at McLeod Residence located in the Golden Triangle here in Ottawa.

McLeod Residence was established to serve clients who have mental house issues, so we're one year in operations, we take clients who have major mental health issues, we have trauma-informed programs, and the bed capacity here at McLeod is 10 clients. So when they arrive at the residence they feel like they're coming home.

So at McLeod residence as well we have three showers and full washrooms as well, sink, toilet and shower that the clients (ten clients) share.

Adding to the clients' comfort, each room has their own A/C unit and also a heat pump, so if they feel a little cooler they can put the heat on and they can regulate their own temperature.

I find at McLeod Residence our clients are very social – they'll wait to have meals together at the dining room table. They choose their own sports, they choose their own movies for movie night, and they hang out and support each other with a positive reintegration.

McLeod Residence is different because it is specifically for mental health clients. The programs are centred around mental health – addiction and trauma and the capacity of the home itself is quite low compared to what you would normally see in another community resource facility, at ten beds.

We have a number of programs, we've just signed on a psychotherapist who comes into McLeod residence and does one-to-one; he does it in this room. So the clients don't have to go home from work, get showered up and go to another location, or they don't have to miss work in order to get the counselling.

For our off-site programs, our clients travel to the Bronson Centre, which is approximately 15 minutes away.

We also have at McLeod Residence on-site support staff, our team leader, personal support worker, counsellors 24/7, who can assist our clients with their needs on a continuous basis.

Testimony from a resident at the McLeod Residence: Hi, my name's Rob, I've been a client here at the House of Hope since May 7 of last year. I was the first guy to walk through the door here when they opened the doors here. (…) you couldn't ask for a better place. The furniture, the furnishings, the staff, the neighbourhood and it's all through the House of Hope. If I didn't have the backing of the House of Hope, I would have failed, 100%, I guarantee you that.

Tracey Cortes: The clients will say to me that they have everything they need to be successful here. The staff support, the counselling, the environment itself and the location.