As the leaves change colours, Cornerstone continues to move past our collective distress to recovery. At the end of June, there was a small fire in one of the rooms at our Booth Residence, thankfully no one was harmed due to the amazing staff team at Cornerstone. Unfortunately, this resulted in extensive water and mold damage. With the support of the community and the City of Ottawa, the residents were safely rehoused for two and a half months and are relieved to have returned home this month. We could not have moved the women back and created a real comfortable place to go home to again without our community’s kindness and generosity.

Over the summer months, while managing the remediation, repair, and support to Booth and its residents; we continued to open up our doors to our volunteers and community. It has been such a gift to return to in-person events, From our Meet & Greet, Mega Charity Event, community markets, and of course our Purple Tie Gala. We greatly appreciated everyone who attended our annual Purple Tie Gala at the Ottawa Art Gallery.

As we move into the Fall we are excited to move ahead with our Strategic Framework and roll out our goals and commitments over the coming years. Our Strategic Framework was developed by the community, organizational partners, residents and service users of Cornerstone, the staff and volunteers, and the Board of Directors.

As we continue recovering from the Pandemic and Occupation, we continue to work towards providing more housing for women and gender-diverse individuals. We are thrilled to let you know that demolition has started at our soon-to-be fifth supportive housing residence, 44 Eccles. We are hopeful that this time next year, we will be preparing to welcome 46 women and gender-diverse people to a home of their very own.

We look forward to developing more connections through celebrations of Thanksgiving and Diwali. We are truly thankful for you, our supporters, our neighbours, donors, our staff, residents, and the Ottawa community! We are grateful for your continued generosity.

Sarah Davis
Executive Director