Pathways Drug Rehabilitation Luxury Addiction Treatment & Detox Center
Corbella: The Dream Centre helps addicts become good fathers through good fathering
Jim Moore has two grown children of his own and seven grandkids. But as Father’s Day approaches, Moore typically hears from many dozens of young men whose lives have been saved and transformed for the better because of the addiction treatment they received at the Calgary Dream Centre.
Moore, the executive director at the centre, went from being president of Canada Trust Real Estate in Toronto, to flat-lining during a massive heart attack 18 years ago, to helping his church — and then lead pastor, Ken Gill, of First Assembly on Elbow Drive — buy the Nite Inn, a seedy hotel on Macleod Trail in 2002.
“This was one of the largest strip places in Calgary. So when we were trying to close the deal on the Calgary Dream Centre, my closing remark was, ‘Sir, what is your legacy going to be? Taking clothes off of women or putting clothes on men.’ Tears started running down his cheeks and he put his hand out and said, ‘Let’s make a deal.’
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
Article content continued
“When we opened, we started with 12 guys. Fast forward to 371 clients now, 49 properties for transitional housing and close to 8,000 men who have gone through this building in that period of time with miraculous results,” says Moore, who is wearing jeans, sneakers and a yellow button on his vest with the Dream Centre’s latest campaign slogan: I Choose Hope.
As we walk past the “transformation wall” — he stops at a large picture of a man hugging a woman and a child with the words: “I never gave up on you.”
“Everybody who comes in here doesn’t necessarily make the full transition right away. It takes some time,” explains Moore. “So, when they come back to us after a slip, we stand at the door and say, ‘Welcome home!’ And they love it. There’s no judgment here. We just love them out of their addiction. We see their potential and then we help them see their own potential.”
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
Article content continued
In the games room with the pool table and ping pong table, Lansin Goodrunning, 23, is living proof that residents are welcomed back time and again.
“This is my third attempt through this program,” says Goodrunning, who is from the Sunchild First Nation, near Rocky Mountain House.
He has a harrowing life story of pain, loss and despair. His father killed himself before he was born. His brother followed suit in 2016. Then, on May 2, Goodrunning attempted suicide himself and spent the next 20 days at the Alberta Hospital in Ponoka.
“I just felt so hopeless,” he admits.
Clean and sober from his drug addiction for seven weeks since his suicide attempt, Goodrunning says he has reconnected with his partner and seven-year-old son, Jackson.
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
Article content continued
“I last saw him a year and a half ago and I’m going to see him for the first time since then on Father’s Day,” he says, his voice catching with emotion.
“I don’t want my son to go through what I went through,” he says. “I want to be in his life and be a good influence in his life.
“There are father figures here who help me learn how to be a good father, and that’s what I want to do. It’s what I’m going to do,” he says, giving Moore a hug, despite the COVID-19 social distancing rules.
“A lot of the men look at me as their father,” acknowledges Moore, who had his right kidney removed in November after it was discovered that it was covered in cancer.
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
Article content continued
“I feel great,” he says. “I don’t want to slow down, because this isn’t a job, it’s a passion. I get to see life transformation every day.
“I’m a kind of father image because a lot of the guys in here, if they have troubles, it’s often got a lot to do with their fathers. So, I’ve got lots of guys who, shall I say, talk to me on that kind of a level, so my door is always open to them and I walk through the Dream Centre two or three times a day, just chatting and making sure that they’re feeling good, looked after, we have really great professional counsellors, case managers, front-line workers and all our staff really take care of the men in this building. There’s a lot of love here. We love them out of their addiction.”
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
Article content continued
Craig Dowd, 39, is now an operational support worker at the Dream Centre, first arriving as a resident on July 11, 2018, directly from the Peter Lougheed Hospital, where he ended up after hitting rock bottom living homeless on Calgary’s streets, as a result of his alcohol addiction.
“One of the nurses asked, ‘Have you tried the Dream Centre?’ We called, they let me do an intake and the rest, as they say, is history.”
Dowd says he started drinking at the age of 16. He was “really shy” but found that when he drank, he became the life of the party, able to talk to girls and make lots of friends.
He eventually got married to the love of his life, Nancy, in 2011 but his drinking just got worse and eventually his wife kicked him out of the house and filed for divorce.
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
Article content continued
Dowd, a former autobody worker, says his loving parents drove him so many times to detox and rehab programs, but he always did it for others. Eventually, he realized that he wanted to do it for himself. He hadn’t seen his daughter, Ava, for four years and missed her desperately.
Once he was clean and sober at the Dream Centre, Craig reached out to his wife via email. She brought their daughter to see him, meeting in the Lighthouse Mission Cafe on the ground floor of the building, which is furnished with tables built in the organization’s woodshop.
“The next thing I knew, my wife saw the change in me and she said, ‘Maybe we shouldn’t get divorced.’ I totally agreed. I started going home on weekends and my daughter would say, ‘Daddy, come home.”
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
Article content continued
Dowd smiles even as tears form in his eyes and Moore’s.
“This place changed my world.”
Dowd says he overheard his wife and daughter giggling and whispering about Father’s Day, so he expects they have a special day planned for him. “I remember coming in here that first day and Jim listening to me and encouraging me and saying, ‘You’re my new favourite person.'”
“One of my purposes in life is to be a good father and husband and be a role model for my daughter. I’m just so, so grateful,” he said. “And, the change in my life is the best present I could possibly give my father this Father’s Day.”
Licia Corbella is a Postmedia columnist in Calgary. lcorbella@postmedia.com
