Providing a safe place to overcome addictions
Kate’s Place helps women succeed by offering stability, reassurance
Darla and Alison have found more than a roof over their heads and a safe, secure place to call home for a while. They’ve also found stability.
And with stability has come hope.
“(Without Kate’s Place), honestly, I probably would be back in jail,” says Darla.
The two residents have asked that their last names not be used.
Opened in 2012, Kate’s Place is the Salvation Army’s response to the need for stable, transitional housing for women in Regina trying to overcome addictions.
Amanda Carlson, managing director and one of the founders of the home, says there are lots of rules to follow — but also plenty of support.
“These are the women that are evicted from other shelters due to bad behaviour or drug use or just complex needs cases that don’t fit in in communal living,” she says. “So we take the people that typically don’t fit in anywhere else.”
Always full with a long wait list, Kate’s Place has 10 bachelor suites and a single one-bedroom apartment which house residents for as long as 18 months. Staff monitor the women for a further 18 months once they’ve transitioned back into the community.
Kate’s Place doesn’t allow drug use but doesn’t kick residents out because of a relapse. Rather, Carlson says the centre — which provides round-the-clock supervision, support and counselling — understands the cycle of addiction and works within it.
While it mainly works in conjunction with Regina’s Drug Treatment Court (DTC), housing and monitoring female participants in need of stable residences, it also takes non-dtc clients.
Alison is not in DTC but has nonetheless benefitted from her stay at Kate’s Place.
“(It’s) the stability and all the support, and the reassurance that you’re not a loser and you’re not a lunatic, and that there are so many people that go through what we’ve gone through and you can come out the other end successful,” she says. “You don’t have to go back to what you were doing to survive before, and they don’t give up on you if you relapse.”
A victim of childhood sexual abuse, Darla started experimenting with drugs at 15.
Her best friend committing suicide in front of her added to existing trauma; that and the fact one of her early boyfriends was a drug dealer paved the way for what turned into 27 years of addiction.
Darla began dealing drugs herself as a way to support her habit, which grew to include numerous hard drugs like meth.
Alison describes her childhood as a happy one until her parents split up. Her mom was an alcoholic, and Alison started drinking and using drugs in her early to mid-teens. By her early 20s, she’d become addicted to prescription drugs — leading to numerous overdoses over the years.
Both women want to get better. Kate’s Place is helping them on that journey.
“There were so many women living here that I could relate to, and the staff made me feel like I wasn’t crazy ...,” Alison says. “I’ve been accepted completely.”
The women describe a sisterly relationship between residents, and say that while the age differences aren’t great, the staff are like moms to them.
Carlson says the atmosphere at Kate’s Place is watchful but accepting. It’s the kind of place where residents can feel comfortable speaking about their problems or can confide in staff when another resident might be struggling.
Because of the supportive atmosphere and the fact Kate’s Place looks after women’s basic needs so they can focus on recovery, success rates are high. Carlson points out the number of women graduating from DTC leaped by 53 per cent after Kate’s Place opened.
Judie Birns, manager of DTC, says Kate’s Place has been invaluable in ensuring female participants have a solid chance at successfully completing the program.
“They’re clothed, they’re fed, they’re warm, they’re safe,” she says. “It’s a safe residence for them, so then they can concentrate on the program easier because their basic needs are looked after.”
Darla says when she got out of jail, she had nothing. Food and clothing were her biggest worries. For Alison, coming to Kate’s Place was “just a relief.”
Birns adds Kate’s Place helps residents build healthier peer support networks, which ensure a better chance at staying off drugs once finished DTC — particularly important since addictions often result in burnt bridges with prior supports.
Kate’s Place also seeks to rebuild bridges, including with residents’ children, who can come and visit their moms. It does other things for residents, driving them to appointments and DTC; ensuring counselling is available; offering group sessions for the women to talk openly about their problems or provide peer-to-peer mentoring; and various programming to help prepare the women for life outside the centre’s walls.
“They genuinely care about you here ...,” Darla says. “I think they genuinely want the best for us.”
“I’ve locked myself away for so long that I didn’t want to be a part of anything,” says Alison. “And I finally want to be a part of other people’s lives and I feel like I’m worthy of being in other people’s lives now.”
Carlson says money remains a constant worry, but adds the largely provincially-funded Kate’s Place has proven its value through its successes. To date, 174 clients have come through its doors, with many resulting success stories.
With non-dtc clients, Kate’s Place has an 86 per cent success rate, and it’s going up each year.
“We get better at doing what we’re doing and partnering with the right agencies and networking,” says Carlson.
“I’d rather have 86 per cent of these women be successful than zero per cent,” she adds. “Put them in jail, it will be zero per cent.”