OOB provides culturally responsive, compassionate, non-denominational “mutual peer support” for youth, families, schools, groups, and agencies within the Jane/Finch corridor, who have experienced loss of any kind, but who also have lost a significant person or persons to violent gun death.
Our services are provided to over 5000 clients annually. The diverse programs and services delivered by OOB focus on:
- Empowering, educating and supporting grieving and non-grieving members of the community through a mutual peer support model.
- Helping facilitate healing for latent grief, loss, and PTSD related to gun violence that impacts the entire community.
- Providing educational training for youth and families who have limited work experience or job skills on which to draw, whose home environment is marginal, and who can benefit from a residential life skills program.
- Developing a strong body of trained volunteers who are able to provide competent services and support to residents.
- Providing a range of prevention services and supports that will respond to needs of the general population in an attempt to reduce the traumatic effects of grief and loss.
- Initiating appropriate referral services and assistance with accessing those, where necessary, to those clients who need services other than those provided by OOB: GS.
- Supporting the principles of normalization and integration of the grieving processes for persons with identified needs, facilitated by the development and implementation of individual program plans.
- Identifying and documenting unmet mental health needs on a continuing basis and further participating with other agencies in the development of new services that meet these needs while avoiding duplication of service.
- Providing a coordinated network of quality grief care supports and services for youth and their families.
- Ensuring that services and supports are accessible to all members of the community by providing service throughout the community, in homes, in with the help/use of volunteers.
- OOB is committed to making services as accessible as possible to all persons in the community.
- OOB has consistently provided leadership in collaborative planning efforts in relation to services to youth and families.
- Provides one to one, group support, workshops and extensive core training on grief, for community volunteers who are committed to the principles of community capacity building, access, equity, and inclusion.
We function mainly within the Jane/Finch corridor and Surrounding Communities, but we will respond to crisis situations outside of our service area as the availability of our staff permits.
OBJECTIVES
- To educate and increase public awareness of the NEED (for sustainable grief support) and surrounding issues.
- To provide culturally responsive, compassionate, non-denominational “mutual peer support” for youth, families, and individuals living in the Jane/Finch area, who have lost a significant person to violent gun death.
- To help facilitate healing for latent grief, loss, and PTSD related to gun violence that impacts the entire community.
- To engage the overlooked – neglected – “families of victimizers…” through a ‘Community mentality.’
- To engage families (parents, youth, extended families), youth workers
- To demonstrate the ability and willingness to share with others through “mutual peer support.”
- To raise awareness of how grief impacts youth and families; Break the silence and isolation surrounding grief, loss, bereavement and build sustainable grief support within our community.