January’s Awesome Ottawa award goes to Wendy Liang and Tanveer Mostafa, to support the training of soccer referees from Ottawa’s homeless population.

Working with Enactus uOttawa and Ottawa Street Soccer (OSS), a non-profit that offers an opportunity for homeless people in the city to play soccer recreationally, Wendy and Tanveer will help participants obtain certification and work as referees. They also mean to deliver an associated financial literacy workshop.

“The Ottawa Sports Officials project will help participants funnel their passion and turn their lives around,” says Wendy, “and the program will be an incentive to recover from drug and alcohol abuse. After the participants obtain their referee certifications, we will help them find refereeing job opportunities, giving them a source of income and valuable work experience. In the upcoming spring season,” she says, “we plan to have two waves of the project — and will strive to expand the project every year thereafter.”

Wendy and Tanveer are students at the University of Ottawa.