History

Our name comes from Frederick Ozanam (1813-1853), the founder of the St. Vincent de Paul Society. While a college student at the University of Paris, he got five young men interested in his plan of helping residents in the poor area of the city. Others followed the lead of the first six. Soon a group of thirty-five were holding regular conferences to plan systematic ways of caring for the needy. The friendliness of Frederick Ozanam came from his sincere interest in those people who need kindness and every type of suffering caught his attention. Today, his spirit lives in the unselfish services of hundreds of men and women in the social services field.

Ozanam Place in Laconia, NH was established by a task force of social service providers concerned by the number of single-parents and children living in poverty in Belknap County. In 1999 Ozanam Place was incorporated as a 501c3 tax-exempt organization, a Board of Directors was formed, and the Laconia Conference of St. Vincent de Paul provided the seed money to develop Ozanam’s program.

Unique in service to the Lakes Region, Ozanam Place concentrates both housing and supportive services solely on single-parent households. Since our incorporation in November 1999 we have provided housing assistance, intensive case management and educational services to forty-eight parents and seventy-four children.

In 2005, Ozanam Place provided necessary services to 253 single parents and 407 children through drop-in, supportive services and life skill educational workshops. 142 families utilized our Drop-In services plus 26 additional appointments were made to accommodate working or academic schedules that conflicted with Drop-In times. A total of 177 drop-in hours have been offered. Based on our activity during 2005, we anticipate that these numbers will increase by approximately 15% for 2006.

The success of our programs is evident in the accomplishments of our single parents. Forty-six of forty-eight single parents acquired housing within two months of entering the TSS program. A number of parents are in college, have graduated with their Associate Degree, and/or have completed job training. One was named to the Governor’s Commission on Perinatal, Alcohol and Other Drugs Task Force. One of our parents purchased her own home in July 2004 -- our first homeowner. None of our single parents have lost their housing due to eviction while in our program.