A Way Home Kamloops is mourning the loss of its founder and Executive Director, Katherine McParland, who passed away on Friday, Dec. 4.

The non-profit agency she created works towards ending youth homelessness. McParland, who was in her early 30s, spent much of her teenage years in foster homes and was homeless herself after aging out of the system.

“It is with deep regret and sorrow that A Way Home Kamloops announces the passing of its Executive Director, Katherine McParland,” a statement from A Way Home Kamloops said. “The Board is in the process of notifying staff and youth.”

A cause for her death has not been revealed.

“My condolences to the Kamloops community,” friend Benjamin Bowden wrote on Facebook. “Her life was in her pursuit to end homelessness.”

“I called Katherine McParland ‘my other daughter,'” Tina Lange, a former Kamloops city councillor, and one time landlord of McParland wrote on facebook. ” She died December 4. Heart breaking.”

McParland spearheaded the creation of a point-in-time count of youth homeless count in Kamloops, which was the first of its kind in Canada when she started it five years ago.

She also led the development of “Safe Suites” in Kamloops, a housing project for homeless teenagers and young adults which opened in December of 2019.

McParland also led the annual Camp Out to End Youth Homeless fundraiser event in Kamloops. This year’s edition is scheduled to happen on Friday night, Dec. 11.

In 2017, McParland was appointed to the federal government’s Advisory Committee on Homelessness. More recently, she co-founded and co-chaired the BC Coalition to End Youth Homelessness that is helping to lead the development of a provincial plan to end youth homeless.

She was also on the Board of Directors for BC Housing after being appointed in April 2018.

​A graduate of the Masters of Social Work Leadership program at University of Calgary, McParland also graduated with a degree in Social Work from Thompson Rivers University in 2016.

Earlier this year, she was given the Heart of the Grasslands award from the BC Association of Social Workers.

The A Way Home Kamloops board has scheduled a press conference at at 11 a.m. in Riverside Park tomorrow, Dec. 7.