Diane Harris is calling it a career after 35 years.
WOODSTOCK - She's ready for her next big adventure!
Diane Harris is the Executive Director of Ingamo Homes and Domestic Abuse Services Oxford (DASO) and she's getting ready to retire at the end of May, 2025.
She first started out as an executive assistant with Ingamo Homes in 1990. She really wanted to take the business world by storm back then, so she wasn't planning on staying with the non-profit for very long.
She handled the housing portion of the transitional program, so she got to meet a lot of the women going through it. That's when everything changed for her.
"I met so many women, heard their stories and I could see the growth as they went through the program. They increased their strength, their self worth, and it was just amazing to me! I kind of fell in love with watching women come in and leave so different."
Harris says the women would often have a glow about them when they would leave and they would be ready to take on the world.
However, everything changed in 1995, when Ingamo lost it's program funding from the Ministry of Community and Social Services. Harris says the province determined that Ingamo's programming was too similar to DASO's, even though Ingamo is a second stage program and DASO is an emergency shelter.
All of the staff members were let go, but the Board of Directors hired Harris as the Executive Director in January, 1996.
"My job was to keep the agency afloat, look for donations, start to grow and we did that!"
Harris took on the position, even though the budgetary restrictions meant she was getting paid significantly less than what she was as an executive assistant. She worked alongside a volunteers to host bake sales, auctions and other fundraisers for the organization, which was now classified as social housing. Harris says Ingamo used to be classified as a violence against women program with a housing aspect, but that all changed when municipalities started handling housing in 1995.
She received the best news ever in 2008, when the Ministry decided to reinstate Ingamo's funding to its 1995 levels.
"When you have no money and then you get some money, it felt like such a huge windfall! We were able to look at staffing and hire staff. We had some amazing and dedicated staff members and we still do to this day."
Fast forward to 2021, Harris decided to take on the role of Executive Director of DASO, in addition to her role with Ingamo, on an interim basis. It was just supposed to be until the right person was found, but it turned out to be her all along.
"Both Boards of Directors could see that there was a benefit in having the two organizations work better together because that wasn't the way it was before. We just kind of streamlined it and saw the benefits of having one Executive Director over two agencies and we started to have the programs work better together."
Harris says Ashley Brown will be taking over as Executive Director of both programs once she officially steps down.
"She started with us in the first part of December, so her and I have been working together and we're going over both programs. We've been able to hire two amazing managers for each program which will help her out."
As for Harris, she's looking forward to some gardening in her retirement years. She's also looking forward to spending time with her three-year-old grandson and she has two more grandchildren on the way in June.
"There will be another adventure. I've always just kind of fallen into what I've done, so I'm assuming that whatever I'm supposed to do next will just fall at my feet and I'm ready!"
She is very grateful for her time with Ingamo and DASO, and for the people of Oxford County.
"I could not have done everything that I have done in 35 years without the dedicated Boards of Directors over the years, amazing dedicated staff and all of the Oxford County residents who reached out and financially assisted Ingamo Homes and Domestic Abuse Services Oxford. Both programs are underfunded and that seems to be an issue that we're hoping to remedy, but we can't do it without the generosity of Oxford County residents."
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