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Podcast Season 3/E3 – Derek

In today's podcast, Blake sits down with Derek, a participant in this year's Recovery Campaign and a team member of the Umbrella Society. Derek talks about how he overcame his will to use and the challenges he faced when changing his way of thinking surrounding his su...
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SOSJ Event

Today was the Sovereign Order of St John's community event at the Ukrainian Cultural Centre. The results of their environmental scan were presented and both SOSJ and Times Colonist folks spoke about the scan and the social profits that are doing the work. There were ove...
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Halloween at our houses

The residents at our houses were busy carving up some pumpkins in preparation for trick or treating tonight. This is one of our favourite activities each year, the residents really get creative and have a lot of fun. Candy is stocked, pumpkins are carved - we are ready ...
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Annual Costco Trip

Every year, usually when Erik is away, Sharlene drags Evan to shop at Costco with her for Foundation House groceries. Sharlene LOVES Costco, and Evan does not. Today, Sharlene called him a "Costco Rookie" and Evan responded he was more of a "Washed up Veteran"... The guy...
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Project Reconnect

Today is the annual Project Reconnect event in Victoria. Every year, community partners come together to showcase the services they offer and how they can help our community. This year Jeff and Sarena manned the Umbrella table and fielded the questions and chatted with ...
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Angels Lunch

Yesterday Sharlene met with Penny and Deedrie from the Angels to catch up on all things Umbrella and celebrate our continued collaborations. The Angels have generously funded our Women's Group again and this year, we expanded our Parents Group to an additional night (due...
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Bolen Books

For the month of September, which is also Recovery month, Umbrella and our friends at Bolen Books have been promoting recovery inspired books that some of the folks in recovery were inspired by during their own journey. Every recovery journey is unique but a lot of peopl...
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Vital Signs Launch

Yesterday, Sharlene and Evan attended the 2024 Vital Signs Lauch event at the Victoria Conference Centre. The Vital Signs are a very helpful and important initiative that Victoria Foundation releases annually. It is like a report card for our community on things like sa...
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Recovery Campaign Y3

September is recovery month and Umbrella is excited to share our year 3 of recovery campaign folks. Last, but definitely not least is the beautiful Alysha and her sweet boy Braydon. Alysha and her wam smile shows how recovery makes you feel and what happens when you mak...
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Recovery Campaign Y3

September is Recovery Month and Umbrella has been spending the month highlighting wonderful folks in our community who are sharing their recovery and proud to be in recovery. This applies to our amazing Amy. Amy works hard to maintain her recovery and she is a shining e...