The sun shone on Belong Ottawa’s second annual Ride for Refuge fundraiser on Oct. 3. Supporters enjoyed the warm morning and autumn colours as they biked, ran and walked through the routes mapped out in the Elmvale Acres neighbourhood near St. Aidan’s Anglican Church, which hosted the event. It was a fun, festive atmosphere with snacks, prizes, a barbecue and a live performance by the Paul Weber Band.
Belong Ottawa’s executive director Shauna-marie Young rallied and thanked all the teams who turned out and had been raising funds in support of Belong’s Centre 454 location, which has been asked by the City of Ottawa to move out from its longtime home at St. Albans Anglican Church by January 31, 2027.
Young said Belong Ottawa is “working with the City of Ottawa, the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa (which we are a branch of), partners and community to seek additional time for a thoughtful, evidence-based transition to a new location.” No new location has been found yet, and Belong Ottawa has formally asked the City for an extension of the January deadline.
“We have shared a feasibility study with the mayor and councillors, and thanks to many of you and many more, we now have over 1,200 letters of support for an extension to the timeline for 454,” Young said. “Our message is simple: we want tot protect the services, preserve the relationships, and ensure that any transition is done thoughtfully—with the people who rely on Centre 454 at the centre of the conversation.”
The staff and volunteers want to avoid interruptions of the essential services Centre 454 provides to people who are precariously housed or experiencing homelessness, including meals, access to showers and laundry facilities, as well as help navigating the social support and healthcare systems.
Young shared a few striking facts that illustrate the vital role Belong Ottawa serves in downtown Ottawa:
Since June 2025, Belong Ottawa had served more than 250,000 meals [about 15,000 each month] with about 125,000 of those being served at Centre 454.
Following the closure of the Consumption and Treatment Services (CTS) in Sandy Hill and the Byward Market, Belong Ottawa is seeing double the need for the harm reduction supplies they distribute
Since August 2025, when Belong Ottawa staff started work to support people in the evenings outside of the centre, the staff have engaged in 13,000 crisis interventions on the streets.
Young thanked the Rev. Rosemary Parker and the St. Aidan’s parish for hosting Belong Ottawa’s Ride for Refuge for a second year, as well as HUB International and David McNamara for sponsoring the event again. She also offered special thanks to the Rev. Michael Garner, his family and the St. Albans parish community “for their steadfast partnership of Belong Ottawa, particularly to-Centre 454 and its day-to-day work.”
The Rev. Victoria Scott, director general of the Anglican Community Ministries, thanked everyone whose work and contributions made the event possible. Before the bikers and walkers set off, she offered a prayer of thanksgiving for the day and “for all whose generosity, creativity and care have brought us together. Bless these bicycles, these riders, these walkers and all who cheer them on. Keep them safe, give them joy in the journey and remind us that resilient communities are built when people show up for one another.”
Belong Ottawa’s Ride for Refuge webpage showed that all the teams’ collective efforts had helped them raise about 60 percent of their fundraising goal of $25,000, with the St. Bart’s movers team led by Darlene Holden coming in as the top fundraisers with $3,145 dollars raised on the day of the event.
Donations are still being accepted on Belong Ottawa’s Ride for Refuge page until Oct. 31, however, so online the race is still on. By Oct. 15, the Belong Ottawa team, led by India Bedson, manager of communications, development and community engagement, had nudged their way into the lead.
Participating in the letter-writing campaign to support Belong Ottawa’s request for an extension for the transition time for Centre 454 is another vital way to help.
La prière de Jésus et la mort