April 12, 2024
Announcement of Retirement: A Tribute to Kath Hoffman
Dear Colleagues, Community Partners, Supporters and Friends
It is with a mix of emotions that we announce our highly respected Captain, Kath Hoffman, Executive Director, will be retiring in August 2024. After almost 30 years of endless compassion, patience, and dedicated service to support people experiencing addictions, mental health concerns, and homelessness, Kath has decided to set sail on a new voyage. We are deeply grateful that Kath chose to give 20 years of her career to lead Safe Harbour Society. Each day
she used her expertise, experience, training, and learning from a huge diversity of relationships, without a single wave of ego getting in the way, to stay true to Safe Harbour’s vision and mandate and her unwavering commitment to saving lives.
Guiding our organization with passion and integrity, Kath took Safe Harbour Society from a grass-roots shelter and addictions support service and built our organization into a respected, significant, and incredibly well-run organization dealing with the increasingly complex and difficult issues of poverty, addictions, mental health, and trauma. We have appreciated Kath’s unwavering commitment to overcoming challenges and informing, educating, and advancing the awareness and public discourse on the significant impacts of poverty, homelessness, substance use, mental health, and addictions in Red Deer and Central Alberta.
Kath has been an invaluable, tenacious leader and mentor. She consistently acknowledged the strengths of those around her and had the utmost respect for her leadership team and staff and Safe Harbour Society’s provincial and municipal government partners, community agencies and stakeholders. She successfully built a team of caring professionals that shared her vision; a team that showed up every day with unwavering commitment to the clients they serve. As a result of always making time for individuals, groups, and government officials at both the municipal and provincial level, Kath has garnered a level of respect throughout the City of Red Deer and beyond that most spend a lifetime trying to achieve. We congratulate her!
While change can be difficult, we know Safe Harbour Society is in a good place thanks to Kath’s leadership example, laying down Safe Harbour Society’s ethical bedrock, exemplified by the 7 stars guiding principles, and her relentless focus on relationships. She has had a profound impact and will have a profound legacy, for years to come. We extend our heartfelt thanks to our Captain for her extraordinary contributions and wish her all the best in her well-deserved retirement.
As we embark on this transition, the Board of Directors is committed to ensuring a smooth and seamless leadership succession process. We will keep you informed of our progress and invite your continued support and collaboration as we honor Kath’s legacy and chart a course for the future of Safe Harbour Society.
Please join us in expressing our deepest appreciation and warmest wishes to Kath, as she embarks on her new voyage.
Sincerely,
Kathy Schepp
Chairperson, Board of Directors
Safe Harbour Society
