News & Events

From Victoria to Paris and back again, Leslie has lived a whirlwind life that saw her climb the peaks of happiness to the valleys of despair. Born in Victoria, Leslie moved at a young age with her family to Hawaii where she graduated high school and attended university. From there, she travelled to Paris where […]

The one word that has followed Tony around for his entire life is ‘Trouble’. He doesn’t know if his birth parents loved him — or even wanted him. He only knows that he was given up for adoption at 21/2 years old. That abandonment by his birth family ingrained in him that even at such […]

When the coronavirus pandemic first hit, Dakota Johnny thought about going back to his old life of using crystal meth. When he was younger, Johnny – who has been in recovery for 14 months — says he struggled with germaphobia, and as concerns around COVID-19 intensified, he found himself becoming anxious. He would wash his […]

Without a lone moment of kindness, Forest may have fallen deeper into the depths of addiction. After moving to Vancouver from Victoria with a girlfriend at the age of 18, Forest dipped his* toe into the heroin scene as a rite of passage to becoming a writer. The authors he admired (Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, […]

“It’s a blessing to be able to help the person I used to be.” — Benoit Growing up in Montreal, Benoit had a very typical Canadian childhood until he became a teenager. That was when a predatory member of his extended family turned Benoit’s world into one of shame, anger and despair. “I left home […]

It seems there is no place quite like Our Place, and I feel truly blessed to have the chance to work alongside such dedicated and compassionate people. When I first came to Canada — from Ireland via the UK — 15 years ago, I debated at length whether to make a life in Victoria or […]

Ever since he was a teenager, Jordan Cooper has been working on the frontlines of poverty, homelessness, addiction, and the unpredictability of severe mental illness. With no other place to go, the people who huddle on the sidewalks and boulevards in front of Our Place on Pandora can be easy to dismiss as beyond our […]

A Changing Landscape By Grant McKenzie Our Place is not the same today as it was the day before, and it won’t be the same tomorrow. In this strange and difficult time, my heart breaks with sorrow at the vulnerable people struggling to survive with yet another obstacle in their path, but my heart also […]