From Heroin Addict to Community Advocate

Jacob Kaufman was born in Vancouver. His mom, who he tells us he loved very much, was also addicted to “pretty well everything.” Because of his mom’s addictions, Jacob was shipped from foster home to foster home where he was beaten ad had exorcisms performed on him. When Jacob was 14, he ran away from his foster home and began a life on the street with a new family, the street community family. Jacob spent time on the street working as an exploited youth.

At age 19, Jacob decided he was done with that street life and moved to Winnipeg where he got his first job working at Club Regent casino. And it was during this time that Jacob decided he wanted to give back to the community, those unsheltered people, who took him in and saved his life. Jacob has been on the forint lines of safe injection sites in Vancouver to working with people with different intellectual abilities. Jacob now resides in Winnipeg and over sees the public washroom project in Winnipeg. He also serves as a Board Member of Main Street project.

One of Jacob’s career highlights was the Tedx talk he did in March 2023. In this TEDx talk, Jacob Kaufman shares his journey from living on Vancouver streets to leading a resource center for Winnipeg’s unsheltered, emphasizing the power of hope.

A transcript of this episode is available here.

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