John Howard Society of Peel-Halton-Dufferin

Community Services Program

These services provide the essential support people in our community need to overcome poverty and addiction issues. Our community services programs help people build positive habits and open the door to meaningful relationships.

Every program has been created as a direct response to the current needs in our community, and each service is consistently updated to accommodate changes to the environment around us.

In cases where a program isn’t offered within our community, we work with our partners to find the services those in our community may need.

While some programs are offered free of charge, others are fee-for-service. Please ask for details.

Anti-Criminal Thinking

This 11-week program helps individuals reflect on their past behaviour, and its impact, in order to make meaningful and positive changes in their lives. Participants learn about common thinking errors and gain the skills they need to create positive futures for themselves.

Emergency Reintegration Program

This program provides emergency assistance to individuals released in Halton Region from Maplehurst Correctional Complex or Vanier Centre for Women. The people we help through this program often lack family/community support and have no home to return to upon release. We arrange for an emergency shelter space as quickly as possible, as well as transportation from the institution. If necessary, individuals are also provided with meal vouchers.

Healthy Partner Relationship Program

This 10-week group program is designed to reduce the risk of domestic violence in our community. We teach men who engage in, or are at risk of, intimate partner violence, how to identify controlling behaviours and discuss the impact these actions could have on family and partner relationships.

Our goal is to improve each client’s ability to regulate their emotions and help them resolve conflict safely and respectfully.

Home for Good

For this unique collaborative project, we have partnered with a number of other agencies in our community to provide wraparound support to clients who have a history of extended and repeated homelessness. These individuals often struggle with concurrent disorders related to mental health, addiction or both.

Housing is often the single biggest barrier for people involved with the justice system. Our wraparound approach helps these at-risk clients break the cycle of homelessness and crime. We help clients find and maintain housing and access their critical mental health appointments. We also provide case management support to assist clients with ongoing support to achieve the goals they set for themselves.

Please call to schedule an eligibility assessment.

Individual Counselling

We provide short-term individual counselling and crisis support to both youth and adults in need. This includes those experiencing issues related to employment, housing, finances, mental health, addiction, relationships, parenting and self-management.

Our free counselling sessions provide individuals with the skills necessary for daily life.

Institutional Services

We work one-on-one with inmates and their families to prepare for a successful reintegration into the community.

Often, when someone is released from prison, it is without vital support and systems in place and they immediately struggle with many aspects of daily life, including the basics of finding work and shelter. We help our clients bridge this gap by providing necessary resources and information before they’re released that will allow them to make a smoother transition to their post-incarceration life. We also continue to be available for support after release as well.

Life Skills Workshop

This workshop is centred around essential life skills, such as problem-solving, goal setting, communication and managing stress. Our clients partake in experiential learning techniques like role-playing and small group discussions to help facilitate learning and change.

Our goal is to help our clients build their self-esteem and confidence when it comes to developing practical and transferrable skills for routine activities, such as job interviews and building relationships. We typically provide one-on-one counselling but also offer group counselling when possible.

Mental Health and Addiction Peer Support Program

This program offers peer support for individuals contending with mental health and addiction problems. Clients in this program are referred to us directly from probation or parole. Our focus is on providing them with the tools they need to adapt back to life in their communities. This is a voluntary program.

Navigating Relationships Program

This 10-week program teaches how to build and maintain healthy relationships. Beliefs impact behaviours and through the program, each client learns how to move from violence to non-violence. They also learn the impact of family violence on their partners and children to help them resolve conflict safely and respectfully.

Resolve Anger and Emotion Management Group

This 12-week program teaches participants how to manage anger and other emotional episodes. We aim to help our clients reduce the intensity, frequency and duration of these outbursts by providing helpful coping mechanisms and communication advice.

Program participants can be court-mandated to attend or referred to us by family or friends; they may have had previous run-ins with the law, or they may be concerned of what could happen in the future if they don’t learn to effectively manage their emotions.

An eligibility assessment is required for participants to be accepted into this program.