Independence
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Non-profit Established 2004
About Ofor
A registered Canadian non-profit that has been teaching home safety and emergency preparedness in the same plain, unhurried way since 2004.
Our history
Twenty-two years, told in six entries
Ofor grew slowly and deliberately. Each change below came from something that was not working, not from a strategy document.
2004
A committee becomes an organisation
Twelve volunteers who had spent five days without power during the 1998 ice storm incorporate Ofor as a non-profit and run the first eleven workshops out of a community centre on Bank Street.
2009
The first printed workbook
The emergency planning guide is written after instructors notice that participants agree with everything in a session and then go home and write nothing down. The workbook is designed to be completed in the room.
2014
Ten years, ten thousand households
Ofor reaches ten thousand participants and begins training volunteer instructors from the communities it serves, rather than sending staff into unfamiliar neighbourhoods.
2019
Material translated and adapted
Core checklists are published in French and adapted for apartment and condominium living after requests from tenants’ associations in Centretown and Vanier.
2021
Online delivery becomes permanent
What began as a temporary measure stays: two programs are offered online year-round for participants with mobility, transport or caregiving constraints.
2026
Where we are now
Eleven staff, thirty-four volunteer instructors, and a resource library downloaded roughly ninety thousand times a year. The teaching method is unchanged.
Mission and vision
What we are here to do
Our mission. To give every household in the communities we serve the knowledge to reduce everyday risk and the confidence to act during the first hours of an emergency.
Our vision. Communities where preparedness is treated as ordinary household maintenance — something checked twice a year like a furnace filter — rather than a reaction to the last disaster.
Neither statement mentions growth. We measure ourselves by whether households finish a written plan and still have it a year later, which is the question we ask in our twelve-month follow-up survey.
Who we work with
- Households with children or dependent adults at home
- Owners of single-family homes, especially older housing stock
- Tenants and condominium residents in multi-unit buildings
- Property managers responsible for resident communication
- Caregivers planning around mobility or medical needs
- Community groups that want to run their own sessions
Most participants are between 35 and 70. No prior knowledge is assumed in any program.
Our values
Six commitments we can be held to
Plain language
Material is written for a general adult reader. Technical terms appear only when they are the words you will meet on a label or a form.
Access before polish
Free community sessions, step-free venues, large-print handouts on request, and documents that print legibly in black and white.
Evidence
Every program is reviewed each year against current national and provincial guidance, and revision dates are printed on every document.
Realism
We teach what a household can maintain, not an ideal that collapses after three weeks. A short plan that is used beats a long one that is filed.
Transparency
Our funding sources, annual figures and evaluation summaries are published each March and available on request.
Educational philosophy
Adults do not need to be frightened. They need a pen.
Preparedness education has a long history of using alarming statistics to create urgency. In our experience urgency produces a strong feeling in the room and very little activity afterwards. People already know that fires and floods happen; what stops them is not knowing where to begin, and quietly suspecting that beginning properly is expensive.
So our sessions are built around completion rather than persuasion. Participants receive a workbook at the start and leave with parts of it filled in. Instructors ask questions rather than deliver conclusions, because a household knows its own layout, its own routines and its own constraints better than any visiting educator does.
We also try to be honest about cost. Roughly two-thirds of what we teach is free: testing an alarm, agreeing on a meeting place, writing down a policy number, clearing a second exit. We say so plainly, and we separate those actions from the ones that require spending.
How a two-hour session is structured
| 0:00 – 0:15 | What the group already does, collected on a whiteboard. This sets the level for everything that follows. |
|---|---|
| 0:15 – 0:50 | Core material, delivered in short segments with a written exercise after each one. |
| 0:50 – 1:05 | Break. Instructors stay in the room for individual questions, which is when most of the specific ones are asked. |
| 1:05 – 1:40 | Household work period. Participants complete their plan with an instructor circulating. |
| 1:40 – 2:00 | Open questions, local information, and a written evaluation collected on paper before anyone leaves. |
Sessions start on time and end on time. Participants tell us this matters more than we expected.
Meet our instructors
Who will be at the front of the room
Four members of our education team are listed here. Community sessions are often co-delivered by one staff instructor and one trained volunteer from the neighbourhood hosting the session.
Helena Brissette
Director of education
Twenty-one years in municipal public education, including nine coordinating fire prevention outreach. Helena writes and reviews the curriculum for all four programs.
Raymond Ouellette
Senior instructor, fire prevention
A retired fire prevention officer who spent much of his career on residential inspections. Raymond teaches the alarm placement and escape planning modules.
Priya Nagarajan
Instructor, first aid awareness
A registered nurse with emergency department and community health experience. Priya leads the awareness-level first aid sessions and reviews all medical content.
Martin Koval
Coordinator, community programs
Former emergency social services coordinator for a rural municipality. Martin schedules sessions, trains volunteer instructors and manages venue accessibility.
Volunteer instructors complete forty hours of training, co-teach three sessions before leading one, and are observed annually. All instructors working with vulnerable groups hold a current police record check.
Community partnerships
We rarely work alone
Almost every workshop happens because a local organisation asked for one and provided the room. These are the partnerships that carry most of our community work.
Public libraries
Nine branches across the National Capital Region host our community sessions and keep printed copies of the planning workbook at the reference desk.
Municipal services
We coordinate scheduling with fire prevention and emergency management offices so that our material never contradicts local requirements.
Tenants’ and condominium associations
Sessions adapted for multi-unit buildings, covering shared corridors, balconies, in-suite alarms and building fire safety plans.
Seniors’ centres and caregiver networks
Smaller sessions with longer question periods, focused on medication lists, mobility during evacuation and check-in arrangements.
School councils
Take-home family plan templates distributed through parent councils, with a short evening session for interested families.
Faith and cultural organisations
Sessions delivered in partnership with community organisations, with interpretation arranged where we are given four weeks’ notice.
Governance and funding
Where the money comes from
Ofor is governed by a nine-member volunteer board that meets quarterly. Board members are not paid and may not hold a financial interest in any company supplying safety products. Financial statements are reviewed annually by an independent accountant and summarised in our published annual review.
We do not accept funding from manufacturers, retailers, contractors or insurers. Where a grant carries conditions that would affect what we teach, we decline it — this has happened twice, and both decisions are recorded in the board minutes.
Funding sources, 2025
| Municipal and regional grants | 41% |
|---|---|
| Charitable foundations | 27% |
| Cost-recovery sessions for organisations | 19% |
| Individual donations | 9% |
| Publication and licensing fees | 4% |
Figures are rounded and cover the year ended 31 December 2025.