Face to Face with Talitha Koum Society: Recovery that Rebuilds Families and Community

Recovery and housing that reunite families and strengthen the Tri-Cities community. On Face to Face, Geneviève Kyle-Lefebvre had the pleasure of sitting down with Odo Nkum and Kimmie Jansen of the Talitha Koum Society, a faith-rooted, wraparound recovery organization serving women and their children across the Tri-Cities. In a region grappling with the opioid crisis, Talitha Koum offers something rare and practical: staged housing, long-term support, and a path to dignity that begins the moment a woman asks for help.

Talitha Koum operates three homes in Coquitlam, welcoming women in recovery, including mothers with children under seven. The first stage is highly structured, focused on stabilization, counseling, and a written 12-step program. The second and third stages add education, work readiness, and independent living skills, with stays of up to three years for sustained change. Services are intentionally community-based, from Indigenous cultural workshops to Bible study, life skills, and parent coaching.

“We say we love our clients back to living,” explained Executive Director Odo Nkum. “Trust is the doorway. When women learn to trust again, recovery follows, and community connection is rebuilt.”

Program Director Kimmie Jansen speaks from experience. An alumna who first entered the home while navigating the justice system, she now helps design programs and mentor residents.

“Someone loved me until I could love myself,” she said. “That is what saved my life. Today we walk with women through the steps, the hard days, and the victories.”

Alumni with lived experience serve as caseworkers, modeling sobriety and stability while partnering with clinicians and community professionals.

The civic impact is visible. TK residents contribute service hours, adopt streets, and volunteer in local faith communities. Over time, graduates secure full-time work, pursue post-secondary studies, and reunite with children.

“Breaking the cycle changes more than one life,” Nkum noted. “Crime is reduced, families stabilize, and a new future opens for the next generation.”

The homes run 24 hours a day, and women can self-refer. In urgent situations, staff work creatively to find a safe place, even if it means a temporary couch while an intake is completed.

“We do not turn away willingness,” Jansen emphasized.

Community partnership is central. TK welcomes volunteers as drivers, gardeners, handypersons, workshop facilitators, and grandmothers who can hold babies while mothers attend program. Donations help sustain the third-stage home as time-limited funding winds down.

“If you want a practical way to reduce overdose deaths and homelessness in the Tri-Cities, this is it,” said Nkum. “Stand with the women as they rise.”