Rows of marchers braved the cold, windy, below 20 degree temperatures, making their way through Yellowknife’s downtown core for the Tree of Peace’s annual Addictions Awareness Walk.
The mission of this walk is to raise a “level of awareness” that allows people to realize that they have a choice, says Byrne Richards. This year’s theme is about “anchoring hope.”
“Makes it so that people can say – ‘maybe there’s another choice. Maybe there’s another way to do things. Maybe just maybe there’s a way to be able to do things differently.”
Christina Moore, a youth worker with the Tree of Peace, says “anchoring” hope can be like pushing against the winds of a storm, just like the marchers. Against the North Slave winds, plowing through the streets filled with snow, feet hit the ground like anchors, leaving hundreds of footprints marking a path.
Richards, the centre’s Community Wellness manager, says a big part of helping people who face the challenges of addiction is finding ways to build a “cohesive plan” towards healing.
Just on the horizon, the centre is making way for after-care programs that build cohesive supports and resources, across time and space, collaboratively with local organizations, said Richards.
Tree of Peace Friendship Centre has been a centre of wellness, education, recreation, culture and employment programs in Yellowknife for over 50 years.
The centre’s wellness team helps connect people with the treatment they might need, supports them using a trauma-informed lens, throughout their journey while in treatment and as they emerge from treatment.
A trauma informed lens means understanding that people “may not know how to solve that challenge,” explained Richards.
“If we can offer guidance to help them with that, that is our role,” said Richards.
A large component of what that means is creating aftercare programs that recognize addiction is about more than substance use. Oftentimes, substance use is a symptom of much deeper societal and personal struggles.
The centre is in the midst of creating new aftercare programs, working collaboratively with the Salvation Army, HomeBase YK, territorial service groups, the Yellowknives Dene First Nation, the Women’s Society, Bailey’s House and other partners.
Richards explained that among the gaps in aftercare at this time is supportive housing, but that is something that is starting to change with places like the Salvation Army’s Transitional Housing Aftercare Addiction Recovery Program (THARP). The program opened earlier this year and offers transitional treatment.
Currently, there are five beds offered at a time, for up to 90 days.
But today, a new transitional housing program was announced, scheduled to open in December and will be run through the Yellowknife Women’s Society, offering 24 transitional housing beds.
“It can be very daunting to come back to the community where you have left, where your friends all are, and have to come back and be maybe be alone because you’re no longer running in the same circles that you ran in before, and feeling very alone like there’s no one there to help you, no one there to support you. So, our goal is to be able to fill in those gaps and hopefully provide maybe more supportive housing, or more supportive programming that runs on a daily basis to be able to help people,” said Richards.
On Wednesday, at the specialized courts, the centre is co-hosting a conversation about what Addiction Awareness week is about and how folks can get involved to help find solutions.
In partnership with the Salvation Army, the centre is also beginning a new program this week called “Crackbusters” which is a support program helping people who are facing crack addiction.
The Tree of Peace will host more events for Addictions Awareness week, bringing together community members, leaders and community partners to build a dialogue about what “anchoring hope” means and how it can be achieved collectively.
