Freedom Foundation opens transition home for recovering alcoholics
Dartmouth North organization hopes to double its success rate in helping men stop drinking
There was a grand opening in Dartmouth North, N.S., Friday of a home for men recovering from alcohol addiction.
The Freedom Foundation of Nova Scotia has helped men stop drinking since 1989. Its new transition home will give recovering alcoholics a stable place to live and learn new life skills.
The home was named Dr. John Savage House, after the late premier who was a "champion of helping people with addiction, especially alcoholism," said the charity's executive director, Joe Gibson.
'You can have a really good life'
His son, Halifax Regional Municipality Mayor Mike Savage, unveiled the plaque and said his dad would be proud to see his name on the building.
"It's amazing to see the growth of this," he said. "People need to have opportunities and everyone is entitled to those opportunities."
The mayor said the Serenity Prayer, widely used by people recovering from alcoholism, hung on the wall in his childhood home as part of his father's work.
"You can overcome mistakes or addictions and you can have a really good life," Savage said.
MLA Kelly Regan, the minister for community services, said every Nova Scotian has been touched by addiction.
"My first husband died as a result of addiction to alcohol and drugs," she said. "For me, coming here today was very personal. I am beyond thrilled with the work you have done here."
She said the home has an "inner bigness" that will help people recover.
The three residents of the house live under one roof without supervision. There is a zero-tolerance policy for alcohol. The men are also expected to either have a job or be enrolled in school, and can live there for as long as two years.
Gibson said people can lose everything in addiction, including basic living skills such as how to budget, cook, and keep themselves and their home tidy.
In this home, the men will re-gain those abilities.
"It's becoming a complete person. We're excited about that and they're excited about that," he said.
A platform for recovery
Tom P. will be one of those residents. He said the Freedom Foundation helped him sober up more than three years ago.
"The Freedom [Foundation] came to me at a time in my life where I was emotionally and physically and spiritually and mentally broke," he told CBC News.
"When my life became spiritual and I was able to see the truth and see that I couldn't do it alone — they were there to offer a platform of new living and how to live sober. I was able to buy into that; they are the foundation of my recovery."
Reconnecting to life
The residents pay $535 in rent and put in sweat equity. For Tom, that meant doing carpentry work. It's part of his journey to reconnect to life. The 46-year-old Sydney native started drinking at eight and first went to rehab at 13.
He said all told, he's been jailed, hospitalized and detoxed about 50 times. The way staff at the Freedom Foundation helped him recover this time has made for a lasting change, he said.
"To see how disconnected I was as a person, and as a father, and as a son, and as an employee — just disconnected from life. My focus became being OK and through that process of trying to be OK, you realize just how messed up that messed up can be."
The Freedom Foundation got a $60,000 grant from the province and took out a mortgage for the remaining $85,000.
The foundation usually sees about a 25 percent success rate of men maintaining sobriety for at least a year; Gibson hopes the transition home can double that.
He said the transition house is a "miracle" and continues a legacy that started 30 years ago when John Savage helped to open the original recovery house, which still operates across the street.