Not-for-profit offers addicts a ‘new life’
The Vitanova Foundation has helped over 16,000 people manage their addictions
Sex. Alcohol. Theft. Food. Drugs. Gambling. These are just some of the addictions that the Vitanova Foundation has helped more than 16,000 clients overcome in the last 30 years.
“Vitanova is Latin for ‘new life,’ ” says Franca Carella, founder and executive director of the not-for-profit organization.
“It’s about abandoning your old life and embracing your new one with honour, and learning what it takes to make yourself a person who loves themselves.”
The Vitanova Foundation property sits on 3.2 hectares of land on the edge of Woodbridge. The organization offers a full-day residential treatment and rehabilitation centre for those working to overcome addictions of all kinds.
Those addictions can be like a prison, Carella says, noting that all of Vitanova’s programs and services are offered for free to those who need help the most.
“They have no freedom,” she says of those who suffer from addiction. “All they do is live to get another fix.”
Carella says Vitanova is unique: when clients complete its day program, they participate in an 18-month aftercare program to ensure their recovery is sustained. Ontario’s Ministry of Health provides 60 per cent of Vitanova’s funding, and the charity fundraises the remainder.
“We want to complete the job from A to Z . . . this is where our success rests. It’s a complete process,” Carella says, adding that former patients have gone on to become doctors, lawyers and parents, and live addictionfree lives.
Many other services are also provided, including community outreach, anger management therapy, art and yoga therapy, as well as support for the children of people living with addiction.
“Having parents with addictions can cause traumas in their children, so in our work with children of the addicts we prevent mental health issues for the future,” says Carella.
“Everybody wants to be here, but we have no room — there’s a waiting list. So I pray to win a lottery so I can build more buildings . . . I’m very proud of the work our staff does.”