January, 2026

2026 Calendars are here !

The John Howard Society Inmate Art Calendars are here and ready.    Just $20.00 and all proceeds are used for JHS programs and services.

JHS donates to United Way !

The John Howard Society staff pledges to the United Way for 2026 were proudly delivered to the United Way by our CEO. Many thanks to the staff of the JHS for their donations through the payroll deduction option.  The United Way supports the JHS in our Community Support Initiaves services and we truly appreciate their support.

In The News

Thoughts on another year on the frontlines of homelessness

By Jenny Lamothe   Sudbury.com

I’m supposed to write a year-end review of the homelessness crisis in Sudbury. I don’t think I know how; not anymore, anyway. I feel like I’ve written it too many times. Over and over, the same story, sometimes even at the expense of stories I’d love to write.

The frontline workers of Sudbury — and frontline is an apt description for the battle they face each day — don’t have it in them anymore, but they keep going, so maybe I can write a few more words.  Cycle and cycle: Homelessness, drugs, addiction, crime, jail, homelessness, drugs, addiction, crime, jail, repeat. Groundhog Day in Greater Sudbury.

Sometimes, I think it’s that government policy won’t pick a side. Either it’s evidence-based, or it’s morality-based, but either way, only in half measure.  Sometimes, I think death is the feature, not the bug.  And if you know me, you know that I am an annoyingly positive person. I don’t lose hope easily and while this is certainly not my final bow, I have to admit this cycle hurts.

It’s the one I hit almost every year when I try to write an article that encompasses some of the biggest stories of the past 365 days and I inevitably hit the themes of homelessness and opioids.

Encampments dismantled, then again, and again; consultants hired , a Summit and plans made, then, three years later, plans abandoned.

Safe sites opened, safe sites closed, more tents, new encampments.  At one point, I thought if I just wrote it the right way, people would understand. Silly, I know. I can be a little romantic. I spent three months interviewing and writing a feature article in 2023, hoping to point to the cause and effect of the crises. Everything I wrote is still applicable, we could have written it yesterday.

Because now I hear involuntary care, when I have yet to hear there is enough room for voluntary care.  I hear people call for criminalizing a health care issue, trying to treat substance use in jail, with the ill-informed idea that there are no drugs inside. A report from the John Howard Society shows that drug toxicity was the most frequently identified cause of death for those who died in custody between 2014 and 2021, approximately 40 per cent of all deaths in custody recorded for that period.

But, did we ever move far enough in one direction to decide to reverse abruptly and move in the other?  Just after the closure of Sudbury’s supervised consumption site in March, 2024, an outreach worker told me “When you close a supervised consumption site, the city becomes an unsupervised consumption site.”  She was correct.

And now, it seems we are back to the beginning of the cycle. The people who use drugs hide, and they die. Most of the overdose deaths that now occur in Sudbury are in private residences.

But it’s the open use that makes people nervous, watching someone shoot up or slump over in a haze, but really, because there is nowhere else for them to use. They are homeless, likely now living in Energy court.

Most of them are local. In 2024, 72 per cent of a survey of homeless people in Sudbury stated they had been in Sudbury for more than five years.

Three months ago, I met this man’s two sons, who are living in the Energy Court encampment. His youngest son, 29, and I talked for a while about his set-up, which was designed thoughtfully and earnestly — honestly, the survival skills on display in community are incredible — and then he mentioned his own kids. He had four, between the ages of five and 12, and said he hoped to get them out of foster care one day.

An outreach worker once told me that aging out of foster care — becoming a legal adult at age 18 and losing access to many of the supports available — is referred to as “graduating into homelessness.”Statistically, his children are 30 per cent more likely to enter homelessness themselves.

These statistics are much worse for children of Indigenous parents, who are disproportionately affected by both the opioids and homelessness crises.  All this, in addition to the knowledge that their dad lives in a tent in the middle of winter in the centre of a town that does not hide secrets well.  And beyond the abhorrent idea that the death of these people is a solution to anything, you might see we’re already too far in. It’s too big for us to fail. We can just let this “take care of itself,” we can’t police it into submission, and certainly, we can’t coddle it either.

But I’m scared. I’m scared that if I have the good fortune to be a journalist in another five years, I’ll be writing this story again, but it will be worse. It will be catastrophic.

The thing is, there is another cycle of things I write. The answers given so often by the subjects of my articles about homelessness: we need housing, health care and income supplements.

It’s almost like maintaining and then criminalizing poverty. We maintain it through low minimum wages and stagnant disability support. If the experiences of the people I’ve spoken with over the last five years tell me anything, almost everything that happens after you can’t pay your bills is usually a crime, as is the substance many choose to deal with living rough.

For full article please refer to Sudbury.com

United Way of North East Ontario

Delta Bingo and Gaming helps fund over 160 local organizations in Greater Sudbury.  We are excited to share the latest round of Charitable Gaming social media graphics with you, available in both English and French!  This creative aligns with the new Out-of-Home (OOH) campaign, which you’ll also see across Ontario on billboards, transit, DriveTest centres, Cineplex, and more. There is an an advertisement running at the corner of Lasalle Blvd and Notre Dame.

Champion of the Month

Sudbury Shoebox Organization

The Shoebox Project for Women is an unaffiliated, non-religious, Canadian charity that supports women experiencing or at-risk-of homelessness, and that celebrates diversity, builds awareness, challenges stigma and promotes equity.  The shoeboxes let women know they are not alone. Every donated box provides dignity, comfort, and hope to someone experiencing a very difficult time.

Thank you to this special group of supporters and volunteers for your ongoing dedication to our community.  You are our Champion of the Month !

Welcome to JHS Sudbury

The John Howard Society believes in effective, just and humane responses to crime and its causes.  We are dedicated to creating genuinely safer communities by helping to foster a truly effective criminal justice system. The John Howard Society helps people reintegrate into society, thereby reducing alienation, crime and recidivism.

Our mission is resolute. We want to help to create a truly effective criminal justice system – one that serves us all, that confronts crime and its causes and that fosters safer communities.  In short, we help people turn away from a life of crime. Surely, that’s what we’d all like to see.

Practically speaking, we STOP Crime Now ! ^TM through the multitude of programs and services that we offer to the community.  You can help us to STOP Crime Now ! ^TM through your donation to the John Howard Society of Sudbury.  All funds raised are used to deliver our programs and services in the Sudbury and North Bay communities.   STOP Crime Now ! ^TM is a registered trademark of the John Howard Society of Sudbury.

We are proud to commemorate Prisoners Justice Day every year.  It is a day where we remember the violence within the walls of incarceration and the men and women who have died because of this violence while incarcerated.  In 2026 the commemoration will be on August 10 at 10:00 am on the grounds of the Sudbury Jail.  For more information please go to the Prisoners Justice Day page on our website.

(NEW!) The John Howard Society assists people with criminal records to apply for a record suspension, formerly known as a pardon.  It is a lengthy process and can take up to two years.  If you would like more information contact the John Howard Society as soon as possible.

Some of our funders include the following and we are truly appreciative of their support.  Given that the vast majority of Canadians claim to give to charities but just less than 25% of Canadians claim their charitable donations on their tax return, you may want to make sure you know the benefits!  Your donations are important !  Please remember us.

To easily calculate the tax savings for a donation of any amount, use https://www.canadahelps.org/taxtime/.

For information on how our programs and services can be accessed in French contact the John Howard Society of Sudbury at the references located on our contact page.  Those programs and services that are available in French are noted with an (F) in the title of each service or program.  The John Howard Society is an inclusive agency serving all people in our community.  We have posted the Pride progress Flag on our website as a symbol that everyone is welcome to enter our agency for service.

Vianet is a proud supporter of the John Howard Society and the great work that we do all across Ontario to provide effective, just, and humane responses to crime and its causes. Vianet supports and helps in creating safer communities and to STOP Crime Now!

Follow us on Instagram at johnhowardsudbury or #jhssudbury.

June is National Indigenous History Month.  For more information please go to our Events page.