By Sheldon Spackman

Campaign Launch

Red Deer Dream Centre launches $1.4M capital campaign

Nov 23, 2020 | 4:14 PM

A capital fundraising campaign was launched Monday in hopes of garnering the support needed to help open a drug and alcohol recovery centre in downtown Red Deer.

The Red Deer Dream Centre’s (RDDC) ‘SUPPORT HOPE’ campaign, aims to raise $1.4 million to renovate the former Lotus Nightclub at 4618 50 Avenue into a building designed to start helping the region’s most vulnerable find their freedom.

Officials say there is overwhelming evidence that a serious addictions problem exists in our region. They note that substance use breaks up families, leaves children without parents, damages the minds of youth, and puts a strain on our criminal justice and health care systems.

According to Red Deer Dream Centre officials, approximately six million people, or 21 per cent of the total population in Canada, will experience addiction at some point in their lives.

The centre’s plan is to open a 40-bed residential treatment facility where, in an atmosphere described as having hope and love, people can find life, restore their dignity and find purpose in living a life in freedom from addictions.

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Rendering of the Red Deer Dream Centre (Supplied)

The Red Deer Dream Centre is expected to welcome clients coming straight from detox, and support them with housing, as well as individual and group counseling.

The facility is also anticipated to help with education upgrading, job skill training, transitional and long-term housing, and continue to support clients as they integrate back into their community.

“If the opposite of addiction isn’t sobriety, but connection, then it’s going to take our community to create connection and bring about change,” states President Wes Giesbrecht, in a press release. “RDDC is financially supported by generous donors. We are currently inviting funding partners to be involved with us. In order to meet the requirements of our City of Red Deer Development permits, we need $1.4 million by June 2021.”

For more information, or to donate, visit www.rddc.ca.

RELATED: Development permit approved for revised Red Deer Dream Centre