Burlington: 905-681-1488
Halton Hills/Milton: 905-877-1211
Hamilton: 905-561-5800
Oakville: 905-849-4541
About Us
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Distress Centre Halton is a non-profit charitable organization that provides telephone support to people 365 days of the year. We are a unique service in that we train volunteers for front-line work providing emotional support and befriending to people in distress or crisis.
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Our service improves the health and wellness of people in our community and the quality of life of those who are feeling alone, isolated, and vulnerable.
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Distress Centre Halton has a volunteer Board of Directors, 4 full-time staff and 7 part-time staff. We have 2 locations in Oakville and Georgetown. Currently we have approximately 250 volunteers between the two Centres.
Our Services
Our Team
Staff
Full-Time
Dara Eisner Clancy, Executive Director
Mark Howarth, Senior Manager, Operations
Kathleen Legaspi, BSW, RSW, Senior Manager, TeleCheck
Rachel Leslie, BSW, RSW, Supervisor, Volunteer Engagement & Communications
Board
Part-Time
Victoria Bello, Supervisor, Volunteer Services
Rose Ford, Donor Management & Administration
Lauren Anastasi, Community & Volunteer Engagement, Hamilton
Sarah Gleeson, Volunteer Engagement Coordinator
Katica Juric, Volunteer Coordinator
Samantha Brown, TeleCheck Coordinator
Mahein Kazi, Outreach Coordinator, Halton
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And our 250+ trained volunteers.
Craig Redick, Chair
Gail Cartwright, Secretary
Richard Darjes, Treasurer
Jodi Dwyer
Feeroza Suchak
Diane Woodall
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Eric Hotson - Special Advisor to the Board
Annual General Meeting Reports | AGM 2016/2017 | AGM 2017/2018 | AGM 2018/2019 AGM 2019/2020 | AGM 2020/2021 | AGM 2021/2022 | AGM 2022/2023 | AGM 2023/2024
Our History
Distress Centre Halton is an amalgamation of 3 small Centres that originated in the 1970s – Distress Centre Oakville, Distress Centre North Halton, and Telecare Burlington. In April 2019 the Centres legally amalgamated and officially became Distress Centre Halton.
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Originally, volunteers answered the phone lines on Friday and Saturday nights only. As the demand for the service grew, the hours were extended to 24/7, 365 days of the year. In the 2023/2024 fiscal year we responded to 32,851 conversations.​