(Photo: Recovery Day Red Deer)

By Sheldon Spackman

Help Is Available

Red Deer Recovery Day promoting local addictions support

Sep 10, 2020 | 12:14 PM

Central Albertans are invited to an event in Red Deer this weekend that aims to raise awareness about addictions recovery treatment and the information available in our community.

Red Deer Recovery Day 2020 will take place Saturday, Sept. 12 from 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. at Rotary Park Gazebo and provide those in attendance with information from various local agencies about the programs and supports available to those with addictions.

Organizer Krista Black says their seventh annual event will be different from previous years.

“We’re going to do a few different small events where we can follow the guidelines of social distancing,” she explains. “We will be gathering some people in the recovery community that want to speak up about changes they want to see for our community to promote and encourage and support recovery in our community and helping those people find those resources and get their own recovery from addictions.”

Following Saturday’s event, Black says a small group of people that have been working to create a Recovery Centre in Red Deer will offer information at Potter’s Hands Church on Sunday regarding the Hope Dealers program which is planned to operate out of the future Recovery Centre at some point.

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“We want to give them (people struggling with addictions) hope that there is a way out,” she remarks. “We’ll be conducting interviews with people both in recovery and those people still suffering. Then we’ll be creating a short little documentary.”

Black says that documentary and a few others will then be shown at Potter’s Hands Church from 3:00 – 5:00 p.m. on Sept. 20, with the additional hopes of reducing the stigma surrounding it and creating positive change in the community.

As for a future Recovery Centre, Black indicates they’ve been planning one for years but are still in the fundraising stage.

“So if you have nowhere to go, in between you’ve been to detox and you’re waiting for three months to get into treatment, we want to have a safe place for you to get support in between there because there currently isn’t anything,” she points out. “People need to maintain a connection to, and maintain their recovery otherwise they lose it and relapse. So we want to have something available for people to just always have a connection to a recovery community.”

Black notes there is a difference between the Red Deer Dream Centre and their proposed Recovery Centre.

“The Dream Centre is a treatment program where people go for a disclosed amount of time and then they’re released from that program,” she explains. “The Recovery Centre will be there to help them maintain their recovery after they’ve been to treatment.”

For more information on Red Deer Recovery Day events or to volunteer, visit Recovery Day Red Deer.