Local contractor building hope by paying it forward
The floors are spotless and the paint is dry. Work is complete for the day on a home renovation Chris Watt’s contracting crew has been doing on an inner-city house.
For Watt, the owner and founder of Array Design and Contracting in Saskatoon, the other part of the job will continue through the next contract, and the next.
Watt is using his business to help others the way he was helped when he needed it to overcome addiction and to live with mental illness. People who were almost complete strangers helped him get out of the “black hole” he was in, he says.
Now, he gives work opportunities to people in long-term recovery from addiction, and people living with mental illness.
In June, he will reach his fiveyear anniversary of sobriety. After he completed treatment in 2014, he re-evaluated his life and realized three things made him want to get up every morning: design, building and helping others.
“I tried to make a living out of doing the three things I love doing,” he says.
Watt’s own journey began as a youth with signs of what’s since been diagnosed as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. He also has severe social anxiety and depression.
Growing up, he felt others handled life better than he did, not realizing that he had a condition that made him different. When he was young, things like ADHD weren’t treated as they are now.
When he was old enough and could try alcohol, he began to “self-medicate” with substances, not wanting to talk to anyone about his mental health, he recalls.
“I saw it as my problem, I should be able to fix it.”
As an adult, he was successful on the outside, with a good job and good pay. The inside was different, however.
“I was basically using (alcohol and drugs) to die. I didn’t care if I woke up in the morning and it got to the point where I started thinking about taking my life.”
One day when he was thinking about suicide, his brother called, coincidentally, and asked how he was doing. After Watt opened up to his brother, who talked to their parents, he went to see an addictions counsellor. It was the counsellor’s story of recovery that helped him realize he’s not the only one in this situation, he says.
Watt went to B.C. where he received two months of in-patient treatment. There, he learned about co-occurring mental health issues; he sought more help after he left treatment.
Now, running Array, he finds that the key benefit of giving work opportunities to people in long-term recovery is the structure it brings to their lives, he says.
“I have a lot of people, they’re very smart, they can do great things, but no one’s ever given them the chance or tried to help them along to realize they have that potential.
“That’s what I try to do here, to show them they don’t have to know how to do everything, but they are smart enough and skilled enough that they can learn how to do it and feel good about the job that they’re doing.”
Zachary Reisinger is one such employee who has gained confidence from working with Watt for the past two years.
“Sometimes it is a little daunting, but no matter what happens in the day, at the end of the day, I feel like I’ve learned something. I feel like I’ve benefitted and the work environment, the people that I work with, it’s very positive and I feel supported,” he said.
No one’s ever given them the chance or tried to help them along to realize they have that potential.
Reisinger lives with social anxiety and bipolar disorder, and his education got “messed up” because of an addiction. Although he has struggled, for the past eight months he has been living clean and sober.
He met Watt in an after care group. Watt later managed a transitional house where Reisinger was living. Working with him has offered structure and understanding, and he’s grateful, Reisinger said.
He’s now the “Zach of all trades.” His job at Array has been his introduction into the construction industry. He doesn’t have a specialty, but he enjoys carpentry work the most, he said.
“That’s the construction side and I feel productive and it feels like an important job because sometimes everyone eventually has to do sweeping or cleaning up or whatever, but it feels good to be important, like I contributed to a build.”
He dreams of returning to school to study psychology, but doesn’t want to leave construction behind.
Watt has left an impression on him too: he now wants to do for others what was done for him, he said.
Foreman Cancee Ross said she has witnessed much change in Reisinger.
“When he first started working, it was a little bit off and on, and now you can see that he’s actually trying to make an effort,” she said.
Ross doesn’t live with an addiction but helps the workers who do. She works with them through their nervousness about re-entering the workforce, and finds them motivated and often able to enjoy what they’re doing, she said.
“I’ll come in to work and knowing that I’m helping somebody else out ... (it) makes anybody feel good when you get to do that.” Watt agrees.
“It’s a way that I stay connected and feel good about my life ... hopefully the outcome of that is that I can help someone else along that journey.”