In 2005, Nathalie Maione founded Helping With Furniture (HWF), a registered Ottawa charity dedicated to furnishing homes for those in need.
Now, nearly 20 years later, HWF has expanded to house furniture in large indoor storage spaces manned by hundreds of volunteers and is bracing for a potential rise in demand from Palestinian, Sudanese, Yemeni and Congolese refugees.
Maione said she always knew she wanted to do something to help the community.
“I knew that there’s a lot of people who have too much and a lot of people who don’t have enough,” Maione said.
Unsure of where to start, she joined an outreach group which connected her to Robert and Elizabeth Rapley. The Rapleys, who were involved with refugee work through sponsorships and charities, mentored Maione and helped her get her work off the ground.
At the time, the Rapleys were looking for a large vehicle owner to support their work by providing and transporting furniture for refugees. Maione, a mother of six and a private daycare provider, was happy to assist with her 15-seat van.
During her first time helping, Maione said she was immediately struck by how little refugees had when they came to Canada. This moment inspired her to start HWF.
“For somebody who left their whole life behind […] How is it contained in a little suitcase?” Maione said.
What has now evolved into a warehouse with more than 200 volunteers was once managed by just a few individuals who stored furniture in their personal garages. The organization quickly outgrew these garages and instead turned to one, two, and eventually six outdoor storage spaces.
“It was crazy in those days. We would have to climb the furniture and then walk army-style on top of the items to see what we had,” Maione recalled with a smile on her face.
In 2013, the organization made its first move to an indoor storage space. Eight years later, they outgrew this accommodation again and moved to their current 5400-square-foot warehouse in Ottawa East.
The organization currently assists 14 to 20 clients weekly, operating on Wednesday nights and Saturday mornings. Based on need, clients select from various items, including sofas, dressers, bed frames, appliances, bicycles and toys.
“We want the clients to go home and feel like it’s Christmas,” Maione said.
Without worrying about furnishing their homes, Maione said clients can focus on education, employment searches or whatever else they need to put their energy into.
Galya Sioui, a HWF volunteer, understands this very well. Between 2020 and 2021, Sioui spent nine months in a homeless shelter during her first year of the police foundations program at Algonquin College.
During this time, Sioui said she couldn’t properly complete her schoolwork. She connected with HWF through the homeless shelter, and the organization completely furnished her first home in March 2021.
Two months later, Sioui needed to complete volunteer hours for her program at Algonquin College. When she saw HWF on the list of options, she remembers saying to herself, “My purpose is to be here and I will stick here forever.”
In her almost three years of volunteering, Sioui has made many friends at HWF. She said that most volunteers share their contact information and often gather for dinners, birthdays and other social activities.
Wes Lawrence, who has volunteered with HWF since 2017, describes the atmosphere between volunteers as “chaotic camaraderie.” He credits this dynamic with much of HWF’s success.
“We are impactful because we’re a team,” he said.
With 175 to 300 people consistently on waitlists and rising refugee rates, Maione plans to continue expanding. Plans to build mezzanines to use more warehouse space are underway, and Maione predicts HWF will move to a larger warehouse in about five years.
Watching her team and the community grow has been the highlight of this journey for Maione.
“It rallies people that are positive, that care about others. It creates a world that diminishes what is happening in the world,” Maione said.
Featured image by Marissa Meilleur
