The Calgary Dream Centre serves Calgary’s most vulnerable sector, men and women that are struggling with substance abuse and addictions. We are a sober program, we take people through addiction into recovery. This includes a safe place to live, healthy meals, group therapy, addiction recovery meetings and dialectical behaviour therapy. With COVID-19 we have had to temporarily close our volunteer program, postpone our fund raising events and shut down our facility rentals and our café. All of this has created a loss of over $100 000 with the potential of costing us more should the mandated rules progress into the summer. We would appreciate funding to carry us through the loss of our events as well as our dried up revenue streams from rentals and social enterprises.
The Calgary Dream Centre is not just an addiction recovery centre. Our process of life change starts with education and extends into long term support to ensure that our men and women can flourish, reconnect with family, rejoin their community and live with purpose. Because of our work, thousands of homeless and addicted individuals have gone on to realize dreams they once thought were lost.
We exist for guys like Chris, who graduated from our men’s program 12 years ago. Chris is living his dream of becoming an aboriginal addictions counselor. He started drinking at the age of 14 shortly after his father passed away and then later in life his drinking progressed to a cocaine addiction.With the help and support of the Dream Centre he was able to turn his life around. Chris represents one of over 300 clients we see at the Dream Centre every year. To see Chris’s story CLICK Below
2019 was full of recovery at the Dream Centre. We saw over 137 graduates and influenced more than 900 people through our programs.
Our approach is body, mind and spirit. All three pillars are of equal importance, if one is left weak it becomes the door for addiction to creep back into your life.
Healing the body means making sure our clients are eating three good meals every day as well as exercising and access to a gym. We also have a volunteer that comes in twice a week and gives the guys free hair cuts. All of these things are part of restoring dignity and building confidence.
Healing the mind is accomplished through daily classes in dialectical behaviour therapy, cognitive therapy, group and one on one learning sessions where our psychologist and case workers help clients with mindfulness, recognizing unhealthy behaviours and learning strategies to deal with the triggers that may come in the future.
One of our new tools was equine therapy, a highly impactful opportunity that was made available to our men’s recovery clients. In weekly classes our clients were able to see in a physical way what was going on inside them manifest through the horse’s reactions to their behaviours. It’s a very powerful and impactful realization of some of their biggest struggles and weaknesses.
We also implemented a new program with our wood shop to help our men learn viable hands-on skills while empowering them to realize that they are able to accomplish new and hard things.
Clients come to the Dream Centre with many faith backgrounds, we help people lean on that faith and build a foundation of support that will give them strength to heal from the inside out. This foundation of faith is one of the healthy tools clients can depend on when they are struggling to stay sober.
We launched our new social enterprise with a beautiful cafe that serves coffee and baked goods to the public and also employs women from our program, giving them needed skills and work experience.
We now have 49 sober living properties across the city of Calgary, including apartment buildings, with weekly check ins from our case workers. Throughout our process our clients are engaged in life management skill training, career skills development, spiritual care in order for them to make a full recovery into community as productive citizens.
We have a men’s addiction recovery program, a men’s and women’s post treatment program, a counseling program for families affected by addiction as well as community housing for clients that have graduated from our program and people that are looking for sober living. We want to have all systems available to accommodate people that are recovering from addiction through every step of reintegrating back into a healthy life. This is the key to creating strong roots and lasting recovery. It’s giving people the support they need and the time they need to heal, grow and flourish.
The men’s program is located at our Macleod Trail location and is available for up to 24 clients at a time. This seven-week program is designed to be the first step in a man’s path to recovery. Through individual and group counselling, relapse prevention modules, and a variety of other resources, we help men aged 18 and older overcome addiction, increase compassion for themselves, build positive connections, and lay a framework for the life they want to lead. This program includes nutritious meals and accommodations.
Thanks to our partnership with several excellent treatment centres, the Calgary Dream Centre is able to offer our Women’s Recovery Program. Through this program, we can support adult women in recovery with safe, supportive, and affordable housing. This recovery program is an excellent choice for women who need additional support after completing a treatment program and before rejoining the community.
Housing can be a struggle for those working to overcome homelessness or addiction, regardless of what stage of the journey they’re currently in. We offer stable, affordable, and supportive housing through a variety of programs. Transitional housing offers a short-term place to work on your recovery, and includes basic toiletries, linens, and even meals. Long-term community housing provides the opportunity to live more independently while maintaining some important support to help you move forward with your recovery journey.
The Calgary Dream Centre is looking for 2 vans, one to support our men’s program and another for the women. Each van would cost approximately $36 000. These vans are used to take our clients to programs that are offsite. We are currently carpooling our women with staff vehicles and the men are using a van that is falling apart. Filling this need is a vital part of our continued success.
We have a current need for funding of our regular program. It’s not a new program, it is our every day addiction recovery program that includes, housing, food, and therapy. This program costs $75/day for every client and with upwards of 24 clients in program at a time, this is our major cost. We are looking for CF support to keep our program alive. $37500 will support an entire month at the Dream Centre.
Our new equine therapy program runs it’s own cost at $25 000. We are hoping that with new funding, we will be able to incorporate our women into this program.
With the COVID-19 virus we have experienced many cancelled bookings in our building and that has left us with a shortfall of income. Any support from the CF to help us overcome this loss would be appreciated. We are at a loss of $32500 in rental cancellations this year.