Dear Friends, Partners and Community

This is a note to say a heartfelt thank-you, and a farewell from your partners in community re-integration work at the Halifax Community Chaplaincy Society. At our final board meeting in September, the HCCS board voted to cease operations and disband the organization. This difficult decision followed several months of thinking together about how we could continue to operate and provide reintegration care to parolees in the Halifax area, without the federal funding we had been receiving. Our "Faith Community Reintegration Project" contract expired in April, and we subsequently learned that our proposal for renewed funding was denied and that the contract was awarded to another organization. So, after exploring all other sources of funding, the board could see no feasible way to continue providing reintegration care.

Over the past 30 years we have walked together with hundreds of men and women who took their first steps away from the prison gate and back into their lives. It was a great honour to be in this space, offering what we could to bring courage and connection for parolees. 

The Halifax Community Chaplaincy Society would like to express our deep gratitude to all of the generous donors, who over the years have contributed to this work. There have also been some incredible community partners who have cooperated to help parolees find housing, food, and most importantly, to develop relationships and establish a community of support.

The Halifax Community Chaplaincy Society began in 1999 as the cooperation of a few people brought together to support the work of a volunteer named David Olding. By the time of David’s retirement from this volunteer service, HCCS had been established as a not-for-profit charitable organization and was in the financial position to hire a new community chaplain to carry on with the work. When the five-year CoSA Demonstration Project was announced we were able to support a team of three who handled an annual ongoing caseload of over 200 offenders and their families. Though the organization contracted drastically in 2015 following the loss of federal funding, a small portion of support resumed under the Faith-Based Community Reintegration Project (FCRP) which allowed for the hiring of a half-time staff person. Since that time, the availability of federal support has waxed and waned as other gifted and compassionate leaders have shared their gifts with the organization. God sees each one and the contribution of love they have made.

We as an organization wish to leave you with a blessing upon your continued efforts to care for the most vulnerable people in our communities, the individuals who are overlooked by most others: 

May the God who came to us in love fill you with His love, to love God, 

and to extend your love to your neighbour, for in this we are all healed. 

Amen.