ABOUT US
Interval House of Ottawa is a non-profit, twenty-bed residence where thousands of families have resided since our opening in 1976. These women and their children come to us because we offer refuge, shelter, referrals and support to women fleeing domestic abuse. We have a 24/7crisis line, which provides women in the community with crisis intervention, information on abuse, support and referrals, including but not limited to intake into the shelter.

We are advocates for women and children who have been the victims of domestic violence. This criminal issue has been silently plaguing society for far too long, and we seek a stronger social consciousness of the effects of violence against women. We seek change and justice; we seek the complete abolition of the cycle of violence.

MISSION/MANDATE

Our Mission Statement
Interval House of Ottawa-Carleton is committed to ending the cycle of violence and to empowering women and children who are victims of family violence. We provide emergency shelter for women and their children fleeing abusive relationships, and offer crisis intervention and prevention services, advocacy for victims, and education about family violence for both victims of violence and the community at large.

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
Interval House is a non-profit organization run by a board of directors, dedicated volunteers, and other specialized workers that provide many different services. If you would like to join our dynamic team of passionate volunteers, click here.

Board of Directors
Interval House’s Board of Directors is comprised of volunteers that focus their time on finance, policy development and response to local and provincial violence-against-women issues. Members of the Board of Directors are skilled and educated in managing the best possible environment to help abused women and their children overcome their unique challenges. If you are interested in joining our Board, please contact us to see if we are a good fit for you.

The chart below illustrates our organizational structure.

Note from the Executive Director

As Executive Director of Interval House, I am constantly confronted with the realities of violence against women.  The violence in peoples lives leaves lasting scars.  We at Interval House are dedicated to work with women and their children in assisting them move from fear and violence to lives of safety and personal growth. We hope this website provides you with information that can help, whether you are a survivor needing help or a member of our community seeking information.
We at Interval House of Ottawa have created this website in an effort to reach out to women experiencing abuse as well as the larger Ottawa community.  We believe that effective communication will foster greater dialogue in our community regarding violence against women. If this site helps one woman feel that she is not alone and that help is only a phone call away, it has been a successful endeavor. 

HISTORY
Interval House of Ottawa is the national capital’s longest-running abused women’s shelter. A dedicated group of strong women opened our doors to women in need more than 30 years ago.

July 5th, 1976 marked the first official day that Interval House of Ottawa, a 4-bedroom home furnished with donated items, was in operation. The shelter began thanks to a devoted group of volunteers that gained quick support from community agencies such as the Elizabeth Fry Society and Family Services Ottawa. Today, that home has grown to a 20-bed safe space for women and their children fleeing inequitable and intolerable domestic abuse.

Interval House was the first of seven shelters in our region. We continue to demonstrate leadership by implementing new programs such as a Nutritional Program and a Public Education initiative.

VISION FOR THE FUTURE
At Interval House of Ottawa, we envision a world where violence is eradicated. We want to see the need for safe shelters eliminated. We want to be part of a society where familial and romantic partners treat each other with dignity, respect and compassion; where conflict and anger are expressed in non-violent ways; where oppression is replaced with equality; and where children grow up secure in environments that encourage the values of truth, diversity and cooperation. We believe in the power of humankind to achieve these goals, and that it is society’s role to set in motion the attitudes and behaviour that will eventually replace the cycle of abuse with one of respect and caring.

If you are interested in assisting us with our vision, please click here.

SUCCESS STORIES
Interval House of Ottawa’s 30+-year history includes thousands of women that have left the shelter to live happy, abuse-free lives. Below you’ll find a handful of their stories. They are inspirational stories that need to be told.

Story of Strength

Interval House saved my life!! After 38 years of marriage, one night when my husband was in one of his regular rages ordering me to leave if I could not follow the rules, the "light-bulb" finally came on!! I decided right there and then that I had to leave. I ended up at Interval House of Ottawa. I asked a worker why I had decided at that moment to finally leave and she said, "You have reached the end of your rope."

Thank goodness I did. So, scared and vulnerable, with no plan in place, I arrived like a little schoolgirl on the steps of that big old house. I shed silent tears of gratitude as 2 angels welcomed me with love into their home. It became the home for my 13 year old son and I for 2 months. I remember so vividly my first morning when I went down to the kitchen and made myself a cup of tea and nobody yelled at me. I knew then that I was safe and never again would I ever let anyone treat me badly. I felt safe and at peace for the first time in a long, long time.

I did not know I was "one of them." I did not know I was an abused woman. All I knew was that every single day my husband treated me badly no matter how hard I tried to please him and comply with his every wish and command. As is common with women living in abusive situations, I kept this a secret from everyone I knew.  At Interval House I soon learned all about abuse and how the cycle of abuse works to erode individuals and families. I soon learned that I was "one of them". I was a victim of every type of abuse throughout my 38-year marriage!! 

The counsellors at Interval House are amazing. They help you to move forward with your new life. They support you and encourage you to do what is right for you. They listen, they care,  24/7.  To live in that little room with the peeling yellow paint or to return to the beautiful farm with the in ground pool, the choice was easy. I chose to have nothing and be free from the abuse.

I am now in my own little townhouse with my son. We are doing well. I will forever be grateful that I had a place to go in my greatest time of need.  No longer will I be silent! I will speak out on behalf of all women and children who are victims of violence. Interval House, indeed, saved my life.

Kathy (ex-resident)

My New Home

As I walked up the stairs outside, my Mom and I rang the doorbell. Then someone opened the door with a buzzer, I couldn’t even see the person. Together we walked through the door into a house. There were lots of strangers in this house. People were sitting around a really big table eating supper.

I felt very scared. Scared to talk to these new people, scared, because I missed my house, scared because I didn’t know what was going to happen to me and my Mommy.

Next a nice lady showed us to a room. It had beds with nice blue blankets on top. The house was really big. I didn’t want to leave my Mommy because I was scared I would get lost.

The lady then took us around the house to show us everything. There were lots of rooms. I saw a living room like the one at our house. There was a dining room and a computer room. My favourite room was the playroom; there were some toys there and some other kids playing. The other kids were nice to me and asked me to play with them. I made two new friends.

The next day I didn’t go to school. My Mom told me I had to change schools because it wasn’t safe for me to go back to my school. This made me very sad because I was going to miss all of my friends. We talked to another lady who told me about the new school I would be going to. She told me the principals’ name and what the school looked like. Then her and my Mom and I went to the new school. I was scared again but I wanted to be brave.

I am now happy to be at the shelter. The people there is very nice to me and my Mom. They are helping my Mom to find a new house for us to live in. I think we will move soon, but I will miss all of my new friends from Interval House because they helped me so much.

A Child’s Perspective 10 year old

The Rounding of the Circle

When I was 19 years old my boyfriend became angry with me because he forgot his key to our shared apartment and I wasn’t home to let him in. I had gone out with a friend to celebrate her birthday and came home late. Once in the apartment and sensing the mood he was in, I went straight to bed. Ten minutes later, he wanted to have sex but I didn’t, so he dragged me out of bed by the hair, pinned me to the floor and began punching me until I nearly lost consciousness.

The way the events unfolded from then to the point, at which I managed to grab a knife, threaten him and subsequently save my life, are now vague. Yet, I will never forget the throat-tightening fear I felt know that, the apartment that I had taken great pains to try to make a home for us, with meager student and waitressing funds could be the place I’d die.

We lived on the 20th floor, and at one point during the craziness, he had tried to navigate me through the balcony door. I fought with every desperate bone I had in my then slender frame, not to go through it. I remember thinking that I didn’t want to wind up on the pavement in my red, sheer nightie for all my neighbours to see.

That was 30 years ago and, the next day, there was little I felt I could do other than cover up my bruises with my hair, thick make-up and long sleeves, then sit down to an already-planned thanksgiving brunch with my mother and sister and him. I remember counting the moments until it was right to have the landlord change the locks on the apartment, but I still spent another night there with him, sleeping in the bathtub.

Afterwards, I was afraid and ashamed and heartbroken. I wanted to pretend it hadn’t happened, that he couldn’t have loved me and done that, that maybe it was just a bad, bad dream. I sought no help because I didn’t know of anywhere to go or anyone to talk to.

In the years since then and now, I have witnessed violence against women or heard their stories told in many ways. In that same apartment building, not 6 months later, I temporarily rescued a woman fleeing naked in the night from her abusive husband. Later, at work, one of my favourite colleagues regularly “fell down” and “banged into things” and I would find myself getting angry at the fact that I couldn’t do anything to help her– the same powerlessness came back again.

So I turned to creative outlets to carry a message on behalf of myself and the many women who I knew had been violated and abused, and the ones I didn’t. I wrote a couple of plays and I joined the cast of the community production of the Vagina Monologues.

And then I became a board member of Interval House of Ottawa.

I am proud to have been selected to contribute to this important organization, and I hope that my tenure here will help to make a difference. I hope that my role here will help to give voice to women and children who have fled their homes after suffering at the hands and whims of others.

In some ways, my new responsibility on the Board seems like the rounding of a circle, where at one end there was violence and powerlessness and at the other, even though violence sadly remains the catalyst, there is support, new beginnings and hope for women to find meaning and purpose.

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