The John Howard Society of London and District
From the Annual Report: The John Howard Society of London and District
Left to right: Jessica Uitulugt, Tracey Gough, Courtney Coqu, and Taghrid Hussain from John Howard Society of London and District
The John Howard Society of London and District is a not-for-profit, community service organization dedicated to helping individuals and families at risk of conflict, or who have conflicted with the law in and around London since 1947.
Having recognized the growing need for housing in and around London at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, they took their first steps into housing services specifically for people coming out of incarceration in 2020. Since the John Howard Society isn’t currently considered a housing-first agency in the City of London, limiting the municipal funding available to them, they had to look towards other sources of funding to meet this need.
Following the success of a pilot project funded by United Way Elgin Middlesex, the John Howard Society received a two-year $300,000 Community Vitality Grant from London Community Foundation in 2021. The Breaking the Cycle Program provides emergency hotel stays, basic needs, and access to supports to individuals facing homelessness having been released from custody – an under-served and often ignored population.
“People who’ve been involved in the justice system are a unique group of people because often when they go into custody, they lose everything – family, relationships, belongings, even ID, so they come out of custody at rock bottom. We connect them to resources that cater to their basic needs that help fill those gaps,” said Courtney Coqu, an Institutional Worker and Counsellor at John Howard Society.
Looking beyond the length of the Community Vitality grant, the John Howard Society sought funding from the Ontario Ministry of the Solicitor General to continue Breaking the Cycle. Having recognized the program’s success and life-changing impact, London Community Foundation sent a letter to the Ministry in support of the John Howard Society’s request in early 2023 when the Community Vitaliy grant period was ending. In the two-year grant period, 28 people successfully found homes through Breaking the Cycle, with a further 12 benefitting from other supports.
“Successful housing looks different for everyone. It could be renting a room, but for some people that might mean moving into transitional housing where they’ll have wrap around supports; others might be going to long-term residential treatment facilities to get to the root of their substance use,” Tracey Gough, also an Institutional Worker at JHS, explained.
The proposals put forward by the John Howard Society were accepted by the Ministry of the Solicitor General, which agreed to a grant of $255, 600 for a seventeen-month period to help the program continue, on the condition that local funders were able to contribute the remaining $108,000 needed to run the program at its maximum efficiency following costs increases after the pandemic. London Community Foundation led with a contribution of $20,000, and thanks to the support of the London Funders Collaborative, the $108,000 target was reached.
“The funding gives us the ability to have a set number of shelter nights for our clients, and once those have been used and we’ve shown the need is great, the hope is then to show the provincial government that we do need this program and then it can roll out in other jurisdictions as well, because it’s not just London that’s experiencing this crisis, it’s everywhere,” Tracey said.
The Breaking the Cycle program is an example of how agencies are having to adapt during this housing crisis and shows that having input from experts in helping specific populations is crucial to tackling it on a systemic scale. It is equally important that when projects like this are trying to established, London Community Foundation and other local funders are there to support them.
Testimonial:
To start, I want you to understand where I’m coming from. I would like you to imagine spending only one week away from home for any reason. When you return to your family after this week, you notice new food in the refrigerator, mention of conversations or incidents that occurred over the week, maybe even new clothing in your son’s closet. Now imagine years away. Technology will have been upgraded, slang lingo will have changed, new political leaders will have taken office, friends will have moved away, new singers and movies will be topping the charts, and so on. It’s a huge emotional difference to experience.
For me serving a significant sentence, I had no choice but to turn prison into home. Upon my release, I not only had to deal with the changes the world made in my absence, but there was the guilt and the shame of those I let down in my life. I also had the harsh reality of being set free to have nothing, no place to go, no one there, and no possessions of any kind. It was very overwhelming and there was a lot of pressure to not fall back into a reckless lifestyle.
Not only was everything changed in the world, but now I had restrictions as well., so I wasn’t as truly free as I thought. I was told I had set things to do, places to be, things to prove and places I couldn’t go. But thankfully there is help out there and people that understand the harsh impact of adjusting to new beginnings.
I was lucky enough to have been able to talk to the John Howard Society and they were able to get me into a program called “Breaking the Cycle.” Meeting with Courtney and Tracey was a blessing. These ladies went above and beyond their work duties to make sure my mental health was good, and helped by providing food and shelter. They truly care, always helping out with anything they could.
I am grateful for the time I had with them, the adjustments they helped me get through, and the opportunity to better myself. Tough times don’t last but tough people do. If they were able to lead you in the right direction, let them, I promise you won’t be disappointed in the results.
- Breaking the Cycle Participant