What moves you? The Ride for Refuge, a family-friendly fundraising bike + walk in support of local charities serving people seeking hope, safety, and freedom. Join us Saturday, Sept. 23, 2023!
The event begins and ends at the Collins Bay Legion 631.
Our mission is to provide a caring and comprehensive solution to homelessness among Canada’s veterans. We are building unique, affordable and innovative urban villages to house veterans during their transition back to civilian life; and, providing full-service, wrap-around programming that will deliver the resources, training and counselling necessary to ensure their success on this journey – enabling them to achieve the goal of living independently in the long term. The design of our Villages is deliberate and is intended to maximize a sense of community, teamwork and peer-to-peer support. This approach was developed in direct consultation with our Canadian Veterans – it is a program developed by Veterans for Veterans and reflects their unique strengths, weaknesses, experiences, social norms, needs and aspirations. These factors, taken together, suggest that Veterans need, and deserve, an approach to homelessness that varies from other homeless populations.
Housing consists of villages of 20 “tiny” homes arranged in an inward-facing, “barracks format” to facilitate peer-to-peer support. But our Villages don’t look like a “barracks” – they are attractive communities, set in a park-like atmosphere. They provide a positive contribution to the host community while creating a sense of pride, identity and ownership among their residents. Each Village will also incorporate a central resource centre, a counselling office, and community garden.
Each home is under 300 square feet in size but fully equipped with all the features of a larger home. “Tiny homes” aren’t just trendy, they are the perfect platform for someone transitioning from living rough: a safe, private, self-contained space in which to keep their belongings, attend to their needs and start on the path to recovery within a community of their peers.
But housing is just the first step, and not an adequate solution by itself. Once housed, we provide our resident Veterans with a customized program of resources, training and counselling necessary to ensure their success on this journey.
In partnership with leading local social service agencies, and Veterans Affairs Canada, we offer individualized counselling and training programs for each veteran, monitoring their progress against a well-defined and proven self-sufficiency matrix. Residency in the Village will be transitional, with the goal of having each veteran leave the Village and re-enter mainstream society, employed, stable and self-sufficient, likely after one to three years, but only when they have achieved their personal goals.
Begin at the Collins Bay Legion, to Rotary back up to Bayridge and Coverdale down to Front and back to legion. 2 times if doing 20 km
2.5km Turnaround at the corner of the waterfront trail and Cloverdale Drive
The RIDE Team Participant & Donor Services
Toll Free 1.877.743.3413 / Phone 519.603.2250
Email kingston@rideforrefuge.org