Success Stories

Size 16 shoes for my son ...

The Community Information Centre was contacted on a Tuesday by a Mother looking for help for her son. She is an Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) recipient and needed to purchase new shoes for her 13 year old son. She had exhausted all of her usual options in her search for shoes and nothing had worked out because she was in need of size 16 wide shoes, a size that is seldom carried by regular discount shoe stores. She did manage to find a single pair of shoes in a specialized store that carries uncommon sizes and widths, but at $130 plus taxes, they were way beyond her budget.

When she called, the Mother was looking for some financial assistance to help her purchase this pair of shoes. She was told by her ODSP worker that there was nothing ODSP could do to help her and to call the Community Information Centre of Ottawa.

We went through all of our usual routes of help and came up with nothing: this wasn’t a situation where the child needed special orthopedic shoes, and therefore was not eligible for medical subsidies; large feet are not a disability and in that case the shoes cannot be considered an assistive device and none of the clothing banks had shoes that would fit this young man. At this point, it was Thursday, a couple of days had passed and the mother was getting increasingly anxious. Her son was squeezing into shoes that were too small for his feet, causing painful bleeding blisters when he had to go out, but he spent the most part of his days locked inside because he did not have any shoes to wear that allowed him to go out and play with his friends. Another source of anxiety was that the mother had managed to find him a spot in a subsidized camp and he was set to leave that Monday, in less than three days.

As a last attempt, we contacted various service clubs that occasionally help out in situations where youth are involved. Messages were left everywhere and we finally contacted the Knights of Columbus who were quite willing to help out in any way possible even if this family was not on their council territory. The Grand Knight approved our request and one of their members went to the shoe store where the mother had found the shoes, purchased them and hand-delivered the shoes to the family. The next day, the mother called back to say how happy she was that we were able to help her and how she had been so disheartened at the thought that her son might not be able to go to camp. She had lost hope that her son was going to get a normal summer experience, but was now deeply relieved and could not be more delighted. She thanked us over and over.

Help, please, I'm pregnant and ...

We received a call from the City of Ottawa, Ontario Works. The case worker was trying to help one of her clients with her moving needs. The case worker had already identified that the woman needed assistance in getting and paying for professional movers. Fortunately, that is a service that is offered by the City of Ottawa, Essential Health and Social Supports. The case worker made the arrangements for her client. However, through discussions it became increasingly apparent that her client needed more assistance.

The client in question was very advanced in her pregnancy, a single mother of two small children, and a landed immigrant and socially isolated. She needed someone to pack her boxes for her because she could not physically do it and she obviously could not afford professional packers. These obstacles were already big enough until we found out that she needed to move out of her house in the next three days. The time constraint meant that some possible resources could not be accessed because of the urgency of the situation.

We made numerous phone calls to try to assist her. There is no real help in the community to respond to this type of need. Two days before the move we were able to find a woman from her community that agreed to help her pack her boxes out of the goodness of her heart. We made the arrangements for the volunteer to go to the home early the next morning. The client was very grateful for all of the work we did to help her with her move.

Please help my son, he has not been out of the house for months ...

A woman called and presented us with her situation.

She has a teenage son with a severe anxiety disorder. He has not been out of the house for many months except to see doctors and psychiatrists. The psychiatrists suggested that she find a counselor that would work with him at home and slowly convince him to go out of the house to participate in short activities.

The mom is at her wits end because she says she has called everywhere and nowhere in the community can she find someone to help her son at home. The first thing we asked was: Where has she called? We wanted to know if in fact every resource had been considered. She quickly gave us the list of agencies that was contacted and in fact anyone and everyone at the community level had been contacted. We asked her if she was able to pay someone to come and visit her son and she answered that she could.

We contacted the Ontario Psychological Association since we knew that they had a referral service. We got a list of psychologists in Ottawa that treat anxiety disorders in teenagers and gave it to the mom. She was very happy with the list and felt that because we had helped her in a concrete way that we had given her strength and hope.

A disruptive woman in my store ...

The Director of an Internet Café and Bookstore called because she had a disruptive woman in her store. The woman wanted help to write to the premier of Ontario in order to get medical access to marijuana. She wanted money from the government to pay for the marijuana. The woman kept saying that she was going to die and that she needed the help of the Director. The Director was not quite sure what to do. She wanted to be supportive to the woman because she was obviously homeless and going through some hard times. However, the visitor had been there for a couple of hours already and was becoming increasingly disruptive

We found out that the woman was living at a nearby hospice for homeless people. The Director called the hospice to get a little guidance but they were unable to help. The Director called us back and was really getting frustrated with the visitor.

The Information and Referral Specialist that took the call was aware that the agency that was helping the woman had an outreach service for their clients. This means that in certain circumstances, employees will go and find a particular person and bring them back to the shelter to receive the appropriate support. The Specialist called the agency advised that she was calling on behalf of the store Director who had already called and told them about the situation again. They understood the situation and accepted to send someone to get the woman and bring her back to the hospice. The Specialist called the Director to let her know that someone was on their way. The Director was pleased and thanked us far all of the assistance we had offered.

Page updated on 03/09/2006