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Restored to Previous Glory

Things worth doing are rarely simple or easy. Our senior resident, Erik, recently decided to tackle the task of restoring the Foundation House dining room table.  This table is not only used for house meals but also meetings, projects, and the yearly pumpkin carving. It's...
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Comfortably UN-Numb – Learning to Live without Substances

Umbrella is excited to announce a new, four-week recovery group called “Comfortably UN-Numb; Learning to Live without Substances” starting in September 2020, with additional groups in October and November. This group is ideal for those who have chosen to live their life w...
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Inside supportive housing

Read about the work Umbrella is doing in this great article in the Times Colonist. Thanks to journalist Katie DeRosa for spending time with us. And thank you to Shelby, Ross and Tracey for sharing their story with us. And thanks to all of our supporters and donors - ...
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Thank you Marianne!

Have you ever had someone in your life that is like a guardian angel? Well, Umbrella has a few, and one of them is Marianne Alto. Marianne, pictured below with Blake our Housing Manager at Foundation House, always has Umbrella top of mind and we have received some very...
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Naloxone Training

As we enter the third year of the Overdose Crisis, Naloxone has been recognized as an effective tool to help reverse an overdose. Starting August 20, and continuing monthly on the third Thursday of each month, Umbrella is offering a Naloxone training session for any comm...
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Our office is ONE!

On July 1, 2019 Umbrella moved to our own office space and we have never looked back. This past year has been one of enormous growth and of change, not just moving from Quadra Village Community Centre to Burnside Gorge area, but our team, our programs, our services and...
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Despedidas, Lesley

Today is our sweet Lesley's last day as a full time employee with Umbrella. Lesley has been a quiet force at Umbrella and we have had the pleasure of watching her grow into a confident, kick-ass worker. She has worked everywhere, including the SAMI/ICMT team, on Saltspr...
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WOW! Have we grown!

Today was our first in-person staff meeting since March 18 and it was filled with A LOT of new faces! On March 18 was there 19 employees and today we have 30! (Missing in the photo is Cait, Dottie and Braelynne). We spent a bit of time reconnecting and sharing about ou...
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F House is beautiful!

When we bought Foundation House in February of this year, on the top of the "to-do" list was paint it. It needed a refresh and it also felt like the right time to change the colour scheme and add a pop of Umbrella to it. We went to our go-to guy, Dave Surtees and he pai...
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Celebrating Evan!

Today was a very special day at Umbrella. The team took advantage of our ZOOM staff meeting to celebrate Evan's 10 years of sobriety! We created a "build-a-head" of Evan and shared it on ZOOM during our staff meeting so that everyone looked like Evan. It created a lot ...