Compassionate Ottawa is a community movement that believes everyone should have the opportunity to enjoy wellness and self-respect until the end of life.

Discomfort around death can isolate people who are dying, as well as those caring for them. We help communities help people to deal with dying, death, and grief.

We provide support to help people of all ages and backgrounds have conversations about dying and grieving within their families, social networks, workplaces, and educational and healthcare institutions.

We subscribe to the Compassionate City Charter, which outlines the role of civic government, public institutions, and other organizations in creating compassionate communities. We hope to share our successes (and failures) with other communities to help grow the compassionate movement throughout Canada and beyond.

Our Vision

A compassionate Ottawa supports and empowers individuals at any age, their families and their communities to live well and die and grieve well.

Our Mission

Compassionate Ottawa is a movement that builds the capacity of the citizens of Ottawa to be more capable and confident of helping themselves, their families and their communities to live well and to die and grieve well.

Change Attitudes and Behaviour

• Change the way we think about dying and death so that we can be better prepared and thus improve our quality of life.
• Encourage individuals to prepare their end of life wishes and communicate these to their families and others.

 Educate, Support and Empower

• Engage Ottawa’s many and diverse communities and provide support as they develop their own approaches to becoming compassionate communities.
• Develop a shared understanding in the broad community of the need to work together to help Ottawa become a compassionate community.

Engage Community Partners

• Work with partner organizations with common interests to increase the impact of our collective work.
• Engage with health providers, social organizations and other community partners to enhance connections and reduce isolation.