Catholic Family Service Ottawa is a bilingual, non-profit organization that has been providing social services to our community since 1940. In the 1930's, in response to concerns regarding family breakdown a decision was made by the Catholic Diocese to create an arms length Catholic Agency to deal with the issues identified in the Community. On January 2nd, 1940, Catholic Family Service of Ottawa was born. CFSO’s initial mandate was to provide services to Catholics of Ottawa; however very early in our history we opened our doors to all residents. Today we provide services to everyone, regardless of religion, race, culture, gender, and sexual orientation. From the beginning, services were provided in both English and French.
In the early years, most users of our services sought some sort of material help while today, thanks to improved public social services, the greatest number seek counselling and support services.
Throughout its existence, the dual purpose of providing services to individuals, families and groups and working toward improving the community has never been lost sight of. Catholic Family Service Ottawa has supported and worked toward improved standards of welfare for all people and in concert with others, helped to develop new services for those in need of them.
Over the years the services provided have evolved to meet the changing needs in our community. While individual, couple and family counselling have remained a constant; we have seen many changes in other areas. Our services are more specialized and counsellors have extensive training to deal with the increasingly complex issues that clients bring to the table.
In l977, we entered into an agreement with the Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services (MCSS) to provide case management services to adults with a developmental disability. This program, known as the Community Integration Program, focussed on linking clients with the services that they needed. In 1996 MCSS decided to amalgamate a number of services and the program was transferred to another agency. CFSO continues to provide services to adults with a developmental disability within the context of our current programs, and with special services such as the Social Skills Drop- In and Personal Safety Skills Workshops.
In the late 1970's and throughout the 80's the community became more aware of the issue of violence against women and looked for ways to address the issue. Catholic Family Service provided counselling and support to women who were abused through the counselling program, while working with the community to ensure that services in the area of family violence would be funded. In 1987 a Family Violence Program was established at Catholic Family Service, with funding from the Ministry of Community and Social Services. The program incorporated a number of the services that had been developed and offered through other agencies prior to coming to the Agency, and consisted of groups for women who were victims of partner assault, groups for children who had witnessed abuse, and groups for men who were abusive to their female partners. Several years later, the English support groups for women and children were transferred to Family Services à la famille Ottawa. The Agency continued to provide services to Francophone women and children, and to Anglophone men who were abusive (New Directions Program).
The New Directions Program is now offered in English and in French, with services offered to both court mandated and non-mandated men (and women). Services for gay men & women are also offered through this Program. The Partner Outreach component of the Program provides support to partners through telephone contact, individual counselling and information workshops.
The Transitional Support Program is the most recent addition to our Family Violence Programs. The objective is to assist women and children live free of violence by assisting them to move and to support them in their new environment.
In 1992 the Agency received funding from the Ministry of Health to establish a program for francophone women who experienced sexual assault as children or as adults. The program includes individual counselling, therapeutic groups for women, and information sessions for partners, family, and friends of the women, and awareness workshops to the public.
In the fall of 2007 we received funding for a Child Victim Witness Program from the Ministry of the Attorney General. The Program, known as the Child and Youth Witness Support Program began preparing children to testify in court as of April 2008.
In the last few years we have initiated a number projects, many of them collaborative efforts, in response to emerging needs in the Community. Some projects are listed below:
Our focus has also been on making our services more accessible and to enhance the provision of services to vulnerable and marginalized individuals and families (immigrants and refugees, victims of torture, persons with disabilities, those living in poverty, seniors, etc.). Our building is physically accessible, we have installed a TTY, and we provide language interpretation, and sign language interpretation to those who require it. A lot of work is done through committees and presentations, to ensure that funders and decision makers are aware of the issues affecting those members of our community who are living in poverty, are disabled, are isolated, or are new immigrants or refugees.
In January 2008 we purchased a building in Vanier and after renovations moved into our new location in May. Our new building offers more space and better facilities to offer an even greater range of services to the residents of our Community.