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Spot the Sober Buses Contest

September is Recovery Month in BC and Umbrella is showcasing that recovery is possible in a big way. On our local buses. There are 8 different pictures of local people in recovery advertised on many buses on many routes. Here is the contest. The first person to find a...
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Costco & Guns N Roses

Sharlene is a Costco super fan and has made friends with many of the staff at Costco, and this week Sharlene and Laurie matched with their Guns N Roses t-shirts. Laurie is one of Sharlene's favourite cashiers and with their matching music taste it is no wonder! 
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Recipes for Recovery – Practice #3

Today in the Umbrella Kitchen, we ran round three of practicing recipes and timing, getting ready for the 4 week classes that are starting in September. It has been a lot of fun for the staff to take a minute away from the work they do and change the pace with chopping,...
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Recipes for Recovery – Outreach class

Umbrella is getting ready for our new cooking program that is starting in September. For the month of August we are trying out recipes and making sure any issues are addressed prior to the program launch. Every Friday we have some staff and our board joining our Recipes...
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Happy 5 years Blake!

It was 5 years ago today that Blake joined the Umbrella team. Blake manages many of our programs but his start was in outreach. Blake has since started up our podcasts, oversees new projects and helps get the word of recovery out in the community. Blake doesn't eat...
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6 year work anniversary!

Today was an important day at Umbrella! Brianna celebrated 6 years with us today, and we got a beautiful ice cream cake to share with the staff. Often Brianna gets forgotten with her work anniversaries since she is the one that keeps track of them, so this year we made...
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Pizza, cake and goodbyes

Tonight staff, residents and alumni all piled into the yard at Foundation House to give Erik a proper send off. We had 14 large pizzas, a huge slab ice cream cake and some Erik trivia, which was actually a bit of an Erik roast! Staff shared stories of Erik when he first...
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Reading Library

Umbrella has started our own reading library! Thanks to a generous donation of books from our friends at Munro's books, we were able set up some bookcases and start our new library. We have already had some people help themselves to some new reading. Everyone is encou...
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Vital Youth & Evan

Umbrella was pleased to have been a recipient of the Vital Youth grant, funded by the Victoria Foundation and awarded by youth throughout high schools in Victoria. Evan joined the youth at St. Michaels as they shared their experience with the Vital Youth program and ho...
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AGM 2023

On June 14, Umbrella hosted our Annual General Meeting. We were thrilled to have so many of our members, community partners, funders and supporters in attendance. Our key note speaker, MLA Grace Lore, spoke about Umbrella and our importance to the community and our othe...