Gaelene Askeland is leaving as Executive Director of the Journey Home society.

(JOHN MCDONALD / iNFOnews.ca)

KELOWNA - After only six months in office, Journey Home's Executive Director Gaelene Askeland is leaving on Aug. 23.

The departure has been in the works for several weeks and Askeland is helping with the transition, Kyleen Myrah, the chair for the Journey Home Society of the Central Okanagan’s board of directors, told iNFOnews.ca today, Aug. 15.

“We were really pleased with being able to hire Gaelene, who came from an extensive background with the homeless service sector,” she said.

But now the society needs someone with different skill sets.

“I would see, like, a community champion,” Myrah said. “Somebody who is really entrepreneurial, who really needs to grow this organization. To continue to develop relationships but not just in the homeless sector - bring in new types of investment, new types of advocacy.”

While Askeland’s hands-on experience with the homeless was helpful, her replacement doesn’t necessarily need to come from that sector, Myrah said.

“It was really a mutual understanding of, ‘I’ve done my work’ and we’re really proud of what we’ve done,” Myrah  said. “Now, it’s a different skill set for the building and growth phase.”

The Journey Home society grew out of a City of Kelowna task force on homelessness that spent about a year drafting a report that was adopted by council last summer. Most of the board of directors stayed on to transition the group into a society.

Askeland had been on the original board but stepped aside to concentrate on her job as executive director of the John Howard Society that, in part, manages supportive housing facilities. She took on the Journey Home job in February.

Askeland was not available for comment today but, Myra said, she expects her to stay in Kelowna and continue on as a "community champion."

Myra hopes to have a new executive director in place this fall, noting the organization does not run programs and has an active board of directors to continue its work.

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