A critical Ottawa-based program dedicated to helping convicted sex offenders reintegrate into society and prevent reoffending is on the brink of shutting its doors due to a severe financial shortfall.
A Lifeline for Reintegration
The program, known as Circles of Support and Accountability (COSA), operates on restorative justice principles. It provides a structured support system for individuals convicted of sexual offences, including sexual assault, sexual interference, and child pornography. For many participants, who often face severed family ties, community ostracization, and trauma from incarceration, COSA represents a crucial lifeline.
Susan Love, the former executive director who has been with the organization for 22 years, has raised significant concerns about its future. The crisis stems from the loss of federal government funding contracts in 2022. Since then, community fundraising efforts have proven insufficient to cover operational costs, pushing the program to the edge of permanent closure.
How the Ottawa Program Operates
Michaela De Curtis, COSA’s program director in Ottawa, explains that the initiative focuses on the social and emotional reintegration that clients desperately lack. Each client is matched with a small group of two to three volunteers. The support is holistic and long-term, with a requested minimum commitment of one year, though many clients stay involved for three to five years, and one individual participated for 16 years.
The activities are tailored to build life skills and healthy relationships. This can range from one-on-one counselling sessions to discuss pressing issues, to practical outings like learning to use public transit, visiting museums, walking along the Rideau Canal, or simply sharing coffee at a local shop. The program currently supports around 20 regular clients, with numbers sometimes fluctuating to 25 or 30 people.
"We’re really focused on that social and emotional piece," said De Curtis. "A lot of them have moved to a city they’re unfamiliar with... They don’t have friends or family to call in a crisis. We’re really focused on that as they’re reintegrating into the community."
National Success Story in Peril
COSA began in Hamilton in 1994 and has since expanded across Canada, targeting individuals assessed as higher-risk to reoffend. It has been hailed as a Canadian success story in reducing recidivism. The program's potential closure in Ottawa highlights a broader tension between public safety priorities and the funding for proven, community-based rehabilitation services.
Love describes the model as "wraparound care" that is not purely therapeutic but centered on mentorship, guiding clients to make positive choices and lead stable, pro-social lives. The loss of such a program would not only affect the current clients but also remove a key preventative tool from Ottawa's justice and social service landscape, potentially impacting long-term community safety.
The organization's fate now hinges on securing new, sustainable funding sources to continue its work beyond early 2026.
