The Ottawa Network for Borderline Personality Disorder (ON-BPD) was formed in early 2004 as a support group for family members of persons who had been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. That year, two couples from Ottawa participated in a weekend workshop in Armonk, New York, that the National Education Alliance for Borderline Personality Disorder (NEABPD) organized to train new leaders of the Family Connections™ course. Dr. Perry Hoffman, then President of NEABPD, and Dr. Alan Fruzzetti, then a professor of psychology at the University of Nevada, led the workshop. As a result of this training, the four new leaders presented the first Family Connections course in Ottawa – also the first in Canada – in the fall of 2004.
For the next few years, ON-BPD gave the Family Connections™ course in Ottawa twice annually, with one course each year beginning in January and one in September. Centretown Community Health Centre was very supportive of ON-BPD right from the beginning. They provided meeting rooms at no charge where we were able to meet for several years and provide the 12-week course in person. NEABPD provided the training for the leaders and the materials we needed to lead the courses.
ON-BPD became a registered charity in Canada in 2005, making it possible for the new organization to provide official tax receipts to donors. In 2017, ON-BPD became federally incorporated, leading to improved opportunities to obtain grants.
With funding from Heritage Canada, the Ottawa Community Foundation, and the Trillium Foundation, ON-BPD had the Family Connections™ manual translated into French in 2008 and has offered courses in Ottawa since then in both official languages.
Starting in 2016, ON-BPD offered a series of workshops called "Continuing Connections" for graduates of the Family Connections™ program in Ottawa. From 2016 to 2020, hundreds of graduates have participated in these workshops. In January 2022, Continuing Connections was replaced with a new program called "Supportive Connections", which provides a welcoming, peer-led virtual meeting space for Family Connections™ graduates.
In 2019, ON-BPD offered the first Family Connections™ course in Ottawa that used the Bell Telephone Conference calling system. ON-BPD began using Zoom Video Communications for one Family Connections™ course in January 2020, just weeks before the COVID pandemic began. As a result, the in-person courses in Ottawa at that time were able to transition to Zoom, which has continued to the present time.
Beginning in 2018 and with financial support from the Bell Let’s Talk Community Fund and the Ottawa Community Foundation, ON-BPD has organized regular Public Lectures by well-known professionals. Since the pandemic began, the Public Lectures have been delivered using Zoom Video Communications. This has increased the number of participants and the geographical reach beyond what would be possible for in-person lectures.
All ON-BPD activities, including Family Connections, are offered free of charge. All leaders are volunteers, as are the administrators and other supporters who work behind the scenes. Expenses for the Family Connections™ courses and other activities are covered by donations and grants. ON-BPD gratefully acknowledges our volunteers and donors, without whom we would not be able to offer the Family Connections courses, public lectures, and other ON-BPD activities.