Fredericton, NB (Immediate Release)

Patricia Carlson, former Executive Director of the Fredericton Emergency Shelters has released her first book, In the Company of Men; Who we are and How we Become,March 2026.

Over the 12 years as the E.D. of the shelter, Patricia or more known as Pat, worked diligently to have a second shelter opened. Grace House for women was the fruition of her dream to have a dignified place for both men and women suffering from homelessness.

Then came the community health center, which she orchestrated with UNB’s faculty of Nursing.

Her book is a memoir, but not only of her life but the lives of many of the clients, at the shelters. Two of whom gave her permission to use their real names.

The Back-cover states:

When Patricia Carlson walked through the doors of a men’s homeless shelter in
Fredericton, New Brunswick, in 1995, she had no idea how profoundly her life—and
the lives of countless others—would be changed. As the first female director of a
shelter that catered to men, she entered a world of loss, laughter, faith, and survival,
where the boundaries between helper and helped began to blur.
Over twelve transformative years, Patricia bore witness to the human spirit in all its
rawness and resilience, from moments of chaos and heartbreak to acts of astonishing
tenderness and grace. Alongside men whom society had cast aside, she discovered the
deeper meaning of service, that to truly help others is to be remade by them in return.
Told with unflinching honesty, humour, and compassion, In the Company of Men pulls
back the curtain on non-profit work—its bureaucratic battles, its moral contradictions,
and its small, hard-won triumphs. Through vivid stories of friendship, grief, and
redemption, Patricia illuminates what it means to be fully human in a world too often
blind to its own brokenness.
For anyone who has ever worked in the trenches of social service, volunteered in a
shelter, or simply wondered what happens to those our systems forget, this book offers
a searing exposé and a hymn to hope.

 

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