(Supplied)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

hoping for a breakthrough

Red Deer Dream Centre looking to attract donors as doors open to staff soon

Jul 5, 2022 | 7:00 PM

A recent donation is shining a spotlight on what the Red Deer Dream Centre needs to finally open its doors.

Officials with the Dream Centre — a 40-bed addiction recovery facility — have had to push back the opening date a couple times throughout 2022. First it was January of this year, and then June, but now the date is to be determined.

Recently, the grads of 2022 at St. Joseph High School gave their annual service project donation to the Dream Centre — this year, worth $11,000.

The man who’s spearheaded the Dream Centre from the start, Wes Giesbrecht, says it’s these types of contributions, from community organizations, businesses and churches, which will get them to the finish line.

With one year of operating requiring $1.6 million, the centre has raised about $500,000 of that.

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Giesbrecht describes the delays of getting people in the doors has not been frustrating, but challenging.

(Supplied)

“This is all a journey, the hardest part of which is to get people to see the end goal, and what needs to happen to get there. It needs exposure. Most people don’t really know what we’re going to be doing, even if they have in fact heard about the project,” says Giesbrecht, the centre’s co-founder. “Once we’re able to walk people through in the next couple weeks, where they can get a taste and feel for it, grab hold of the vision, I believe the centre will sell itself.”

Government funding has been sought, but to-date, the answer has been no. That will continue to be an avenue they explore, but it isn’t the most important one, believes Giesbrecht.

“With so much of local programming and projects, a lot of the time our mentality is that the medical community or the government should look after it. But I think that in a healthy community, it’s the community-funded and community-driven initiatives that are the most powerful,” he says. “Something like St. Joe’s grad donation, which meant those kids coming together and wanting to grab a hold of this cause — as a dad with kids in that age range, seeing how important it is to them is really cool.”

St. Joseph grad Jessica Barclay (left), Wes Giesbrecht, RDDC President and Co-founder (middle), and Vince Aliberti, RDDC Executive Director. (Supplied)

It’s believed the occupancy permits and all other paperwork for the Dream Centre will be finalized by mid-July, meaning it could open with sufficient operating funds. However, those funds aren’t sufficient at this time, so it simply cannot.

“If we wait for the next person to do something, it may never happen,” says Giesbrecht, who is passionate about being part of the overall solution to this city’s role in the opioid and drug-poisoning crisis.

“We’re all affected by addictions in some fashion,” he says. “We all know somebody. Whatever the case, we have close proximity to people who are struggling with addiction, and we need to help them.

“There is opportunity here to build community, and help individuals and families who need support. We can’t just rely on government resources for that. Nobody ever said this was going to be easy, but once we open, it’s going to be good.”

More information is at rddc.ca.