Porchlight Counselling and Addiction Services

12/19/2025

Porchlight would like to wish you and yours Happy Holidays!

Please note that our offices will be starting on December 24th and reopening on January 5th. Virtual Reception will be available on December 24th and and January 2nd.

Our Warming Centre will remain open nightly.

If you experience an emergency, please contact 911 or proceed to your local hospital.

12/17/2025

Hosted by Wanner Mennonite Church along side our Recovery Homes on Beaverdale Rd. In Cambridge.

12/16/2025

Starting in January!

Porchlight, alongside Kinbridge, is running weekly Expressive Art Labs for Neuro-queer Youth!

Join us for a fun and expressive art program led in a Neuro-Affirming way to support you and encourage expression.

Starts: January 12th
Repeats: Every Monday
Time: 4:30 to 5:30pm
Cost: Free (All materials included!)
Who: Youth ages 12-15
Where: At the Kinbridge Community Association (200 Christopher Dr.)

To register, call: 519-621-5090

12/12/2025

Today we are remembering Andrew along side his parents Lori and John Thomson. We are thankful for the opportunity to take time to remember Andrew and his life journey and for the Thomson family’s willingness to share. We are truly grateful, for your encouraging words to our residents, your dedication to bringing others hope and your support to our program. We thank you!

12/11/2025

This morning, our Social Enterprise Team ‘Harvesting Hope’ was busy making mince meat tarts and learning new pie tricks. We are selling out fast with pre-orders along side Meals in a Hurry. See you at the market on Saturday morning.

12/02/2025

Dear Friends,

As Giving Tuesday arrives, I’ve found myself reflecting on how generosity shows up in our lives. In recent years, Giving Tuesday has become a circled day on the calendar - an event, a hashtag, or maybe just and outlook notification that it's time to give. And while that spotlight is valuable, it also raises a question worth sitting with: Has generosity become something we schedule, rather than something we live?

At Porchlight, we’ve been doing significant reflection on how our efforts to raise funds are grounded in our community, and how we value the people behind gifts and the spirit they’re offered in more than the dollars. This has led us to questions about what generosity looks like today, and how we can be a generous organization – while also being one that relies on gifts from others.

At its best, generosity is not an occasion but a characteristic – a way of moving through the world with empathy, curiosity, and a willingness to see possibility in others. It’s something we practice in small decisions, quiet moments, and the choices no one else sees. Giving Tuesday simply offers us a chance to notice it again.

As we think about what it means to embody generosity, I want to thank you for the many ways you’ve supported our work. Whether through donations, volunteering, or spreading the word, you’ve shown that generosity can be a habit of the heart, not just a headline.

If you are able, we invite you to continue that habit today with a gift to Porchlight. Your support helps us to provide responsive mental health care, emotional education to youth, addiction care and places of recovery, and literal warmth and roofs to many in our community who otherwise wouldn’t have either. It truly makes a difference for the people we serve.

But more than anything, I hope this day acts as a reminder – not of a campaign, but of the kind of community we are choosing to build together.

Thank you for being part of it.

With gratitude,

Cameron Dearlove

Porchlight Counselling & Addiction Services
Executive Director

https://porchlightcnd.org/donate

12/01/2025

11/26/2025

Porchlight is hiring!

Due to growth in our Veteran's Housing Program, Porchlight is adding to our team with a new opening for Veteran's Housing Support & Housing Liaison.

If this role is sounds right for you or someone you know, you can find more information at porchlightcnd.org/careers

11/13/2025

We're really excited that the Ending Veterans' Homelessness Initiative is been announced, and we can share with you all the work we're doing through it.

The program funds local organizations, including Porchlight Counselling & Addiction Services in partnership with Thrive HIV Prevention & Support, and Cambridge Shelter Corporation, to deliver wrap-around supports designed to help Veterans find and maintain housing and exit experiences of homelessness.

A number of Veterans have already been housed through this work, and we're looking forward to seeing more housed in the future.

As our Executive Director, Cameron Dearlove, has said, “[Porchlight was f]ounded in 1940 to support Veterans returning from war as they rebuilt their lives, our organization remains deeply committed to that same mission 85 years later. Today, we are proud to once again walk alongside Veterans—helping them build lives of meaning, stability, and connection. We are honoured to support Veterans experiencing homelessness and believe that, by working collaboratively with our community, we can and will end Veteran homelessness in Waterloo Region.”

Waterloo Region’s Ending Veteran Homelessness Initiative (EVII) is supported with $3,077,080 in funding as announced yesterday by the Government of Canada.

You can find more details in the full press release from the Region here:

Waterloo Region – The Region of Waterloo and its partners are working together to prevent and address Veteran homelessness. The Region’s Ending Veteran Homelessness Initiative (EVII) is su...

11/11/2025

Lest We Forget, the eleventh of November is set aside each year to remember those who've fought and been lost through service to Canada.

This year, as in past years, Porchlight will be laying a wreath at the Cenotaph in Queen's Square. A small act of Remembrance for those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

11/07/2025

Porchlight is partnering with SOAHAC to support hosting a commemoration of Indigenous Veterans Day on November 8th.

All are welcome to join, at SOAHAC's offices, 745 Coronation Blvd, Cambridge. The event will begin at 10:30am, with refreshments to follow.

11/07/2025

Your voice = change. 🖤

The Pulse Check Survey is here to gather real stories from Black residents in Waterloo Region — so services, programs, and supports reflect your reality.
💡 Why it matters:
✔ Helps identify missing supports
✔ Guides local advocacy & programs
✔ Pushes for better funding & equity in our communities

Who should take it?
🔸 Black youth & families (14+)
🔸 Multilingual & newcomer communities
🔸 Parents, caregivers, elders, and seniors

⏱ Just 30–40 minutes. Anonymous. Enter for a chance to win a gift card.

Take the survey here 👉 bit.ly/rbcpulse