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Justin moves on

Tonight was an emotional night at the weekly Foundation House meeting. Long time resident and previous Senior Resident Justin, is moving out tomorrow and tonight, we said goodbye. We welcomed staff, Cooper House guys and some alumni to the house as everyone thanked Just...
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United Way Visit

Today members of the United Way team popped by Foundation House to chat with us about the great work Umbrella is doing in the community. The United Way has been a huge support of Umbrella and we always look forward to opportunities to chat with them and express our thank...
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Victoria Sexual Assault Centre

Every Wednesday Umbrella has a team meeting, and we rotate the chair of the meeting among the staff. This week, Louise was our chair and she had arranged for Victoria Sexual Assault Centre to come and share more about the great work they are doing in the community. Sama...
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Minister Judy Darcy

What a great meeting! Today, Sharlene and Evan had the pleasure to meet with the Minister of Mental Health & Addictions, Honorable Judy Darcy. Minister Darcy and her team have made some incredible strides in our fractured MHSU system, and there was some great conversati...
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Our new office!

It took all day Friday and half of Sunday, but we have the new office set up and ready to go for Tuesday! This office was truly a community effort with support from our board, staff, residents, and community. There was some major magic that played a role in this move as...
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IKEA building

Umbrella has been busy getting our new office all set up. We needed to enlist the help of board, staff and friends of Umbrella to get all the IKEA things together. As you can see Kelly and Sean were working hard while Evan was falling behind.. looking distracted by his ...
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Thank you QVCC!

Today we said goodbye to our amazing friends at the Quadra Village Community Centre. For the last 15 years, QVCC has been our home, our only office. The staff there have been an incredible part of shaping the future of the Umbrella Society. Today, we transition to our...
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Soap for Hope

When Bronwyn, Sharlene and Alison attended Thriving Non-Profits they made lots of great community connections. Today, Sharlene and Evan went to Soap for Hope and toured their amazing program, led by Anne, the ED of Disaster Aid Canada. Anne loaded our car up with linens...
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Strategic Review

Tonight was the review of our strategic plan. Cassie and Duanna joined us for love and a lap to nap on. We had a great meeting and everyone is really excited about where Umbrella is at, and where we are heading. It is a great time to be part of Umbrella, especially if ...
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Thriving Non-Profits

Today, Sharlene & Bronwyn graduated from the Thriving Non-Profits Program, funded by Victoria Foundation. We have learned about social enterprise, fee for service, assets and scale, and so much more great stuff! Our coach that worked with us for the last six months was ...