More compassion vital to addressing local drug crisis
By Ry Clarke - Lethbridge Herald Local Journalism Initiative Reporter on November 10, 2022.
Herald photo by Ry Clarke
Jacen Abrey, director of the Indigenous Recovery Coaching Program, speaks this week at CasaDowntown Lethbridge Business Revitalization Zone, the Lethbridge Chamber of Commerce, and the City of Lethbridge held the second instalment of its Downtown Safety Education and Information Sessions Tuesday at CASA.
The session focused on understanding the drug crisis with Jacen Abrey, director of the Indigenous Recovery Coaching Program (IRC), and Samantha Scout, program coordinator for IRC.
The IRC is a recovery-oriented community-based recovery coaching program that focuses on supporting individuals in recovery from opioid or methamphetamine use in the Lethbridge area. Located at 1206 6 Avenue South the program looks to its vision, restoring connection to the old life with new experiences from a shared spirit of Niitsitapi, and empowering individuals toward recovery with cultural guidance.
“We have peer support workers that are there to recruit. Their job is to come out to the community, connect with the people, and invite them back to us,” said Scout. “Right now we have six Indigenous Recovery Coaches, and their role is to provide support for people actively working towards recovery. Through detox all the way up to treatment.”
Speaking to the cycle of drug use, Abrey says that without a housing solution the drug issue will continue, noting that when individuals have nowhere to go coming out of rehabilitation, they relapse because they end up back on the streets.
“If we don’t break the cycle, it is going to continue. Right now, we just don’t have the compassion,” said Abrey. “I have taken it upon myself to go out and work in the encampment. When that encampment was set up, I could tell you who was sitting in every tent, what drug they may have taken. Now they want to do a mass count of the homeless, but now we scattered the homeless throughout the city.”
IRC spoke to the relationship they have established with their clientele over time.
“In August and September, we had over 400 people walk through our doors,” said Scout. “All it took was getting out there on your feet and getting in the community. Showing your face and introducing yourself and being genuine.”
Working from a humanitarian point-of-view, the IRC works with addictions on a human level, employing compassion to help those in need to overcome their addictions.
“It doesn’t matter as an Indigenous or non-Indigenous person, it is who you are and where you are from that you need to retrain yourself to your core,” said Abrey.
11-10
No one bothers to discuss the cost of doing this where you hope to be employed Abrey! You care nothing for the ratepayers that support you and the Nonprofit you work for.
So ultimately what you want is the ratepayers to (if need be) lose their businesses, livelihoods, and possibly their life so you can be employed in the downtown?
Why are you not on the bandwagon to protect ratepayers in the North End and Businesses Downtown? You probably think its not your job, you are to serve “where they are” but ultimately you will be one of the reasons that the city becomes more racist then it is already.
You state something that is categorically incorrect as if it is fact. You state “Speaking to the cycle of drug use, Abrey says that without a housing solution the drug issue will continue, noting that when individuals have nowhere to go coming out of rehabilitation, they relapse because they end up back on the streets.”
Drug issue will continue with or without homes. You do not speak to the success rate of rehab because you know the real numbers. Statistically you have more addicts joining the street people then there is either dying or rehabbing succesfully.
But I quite realize its your job to offer hope of rehab etc. Which is fine but by omission you purposely leave out the fact that 95%+ of the addicts will remain on the street until they die and continue to rob, assault, etc through all the rehab you care to mention.
I think rehab is great, but you, like the rest of this city don’t want to speak to the 95% who never rehab. So why not speak to it Mr Abrey, I know why because I have sung from this same song sheet for 50 years. If you do not provide a tantrum proof home to the 95% then you and your group are condemning Lethbridge, period!
Even with the most exaggerated success rates you already know that Lethbridge Downtown will be crucified if we follow yours and the nonprofits plans.
I predicted a year ago we would have 700 addicts in the downtown by 2025
and still see that more and more viable everyday. Yet, Mr Abrey you do not mention things like Edmonton who housed 900 ($1billion) and suddenly have over 1500 in waiting after they thought they were catching up!! Why? He who offers homes first wins! Shuttle buses run from every outliar town and village ! You do not mention Medicine Hat solved the “homeless housing problem” for 3 months then suddenly had 150 more arrive on their doorstep, but you don’t mention that Mr. Abrey?
I do not see you owning a business in the downtown Mr Abrey, nor do I see you paying taxes in the North end Westminster Area. So you, like 99% of Lethbridge believe its fine to hang a section of the city out to dry as long as its not your section, right? Ever notice none of these meetings or solution driven discussions address the ratepayers, you know those suckers that support this fiasco only to find they have to endure societies destruction, residential destruction and business collapse as payback?
I know all about your stint out at Standoff and somehow everyone here has to fall in line and sacrifice their society, their business, their livelihood because you and the non profits believe addicts are entitled to prime real estate?
Nice talk but I am not buying it! But, complacent Lethbridge will and has, so you are already ahead!
A quote “They know not what they do”, unfortunately I know exactly what they are doing to our city and it sickens me! Give it two years then maybe just maybe Lethbridge will wake up, but of course it will be too late by then. You will be permanently imbedded!
Again, just in case you are confused, I am talking about the 95% while you are pretending to talk about the 100% when in fact you are talking about 5% ONLY. That’s the Con, its been the Con for 50 years and counting! When addressing people you talk about rehab, like everyone else, the fools listening “think” you are referring to the 100% of the problem. But you like everyone else never say upfront that you are really only talking about 5% and “ya golly gee you have to live with the 95%” So you are asking all of us to turn Lethbridge Downtown into a disaster zone for 5%? 5% of 400 is 20 people, 20 PEOPLE!!
So who protects our downtown, our society, our residents, and our businesses and personal safety from the 95% Mr Abrey?
I have a plan that protects Standoff and Lethbridge from the 95% that you do not address. You have no plan to address the crime, and the downtown collapse. I can offer a home to the 95% who will not rehabilitate! What is your nonprofit offering Mr Abrey?
I am all for rehab, offering comfort, housing etc. However, because taxpayers pay for it, we pick the real estate!
http://lethccc.com
You may say, why do I get to pick Hwy 509 next to Blood? Thats my idea. SSIGs idea was to pretend for 15 months they were evaluating many many sites when they only y studied one! DOWNTOWN. Last I heard we had about 12 or more different 19 acre packages other than the 19 acres downtown, why were they not considered? Simple really, if you are in the middle of nowhere you can’t destroy prime real estate prices, and buy them on the cheap and embed!
Why did I pick 509? Mom and dad can visit, mom and dad can volunteer and they are treated through an Indigenous/Blackfoot Lens! Why not the other side the Airport? Out by Cavendish? Out by the Jail? Out by the massive Church on Hwy 4? Farther from Mom and Dad, that’s why! No one on SSIG studied those options because its gotta be prime real estate and if businesses/residents die who cares, doing Gods work comes with a cost, right?
Who wrote this?
Who wrote what?
Turbine-wine’s piece
Arches and alpha house will be gone after Xmas. As the paper recently reported Blood tribe health will be taking over. Did not Abrey, Tailfeathers and Blood tribe health services part company some time ago? I understand that the Blood tribe health services trys to follow the bringing the spirit home idea? Unlike Mr. Abrey, it appears?
There seems to be a great deal of empire building or power plays over the same piggy bank- the taxpayer? The Indigenous addicts seem to have tattoos on their foreheads of dollar signs with the way that soo many supposedly nonprofits are chasing the jobs and money on this issue and by trying to keep soo much of it concentrated in town?
A number of people ( without monetary gains on this issue) and with much more understanding of the bigger picture, some Indigenous, some not , point out that if a group is really serious about recovery for the Indigenous addict they would promote recovery services on the reserve.
But it would appear as though some other characters (including Lethbridge housing and the city’s own Community Social services department ) as well as some nonprofits benefit greatly ,by hanging on to their jobs with the build more housing in Lethbridge game plan. Why? Because some of them may have already been kicked off the reserve? Some would not be able to continue feathering their nests at city hall and in the city if more of it is moved to the Reserve?
Follow the money and jobs. Try to find accountability and success numbers,especially after all this time. I believe that Lethbridge experienced quite a white out and snow job already this past week.
I truly believe the best place to deal with the indigenous addiction issues would be on one of the Blackfoot Confederation’s reserves. The Kainai have would be the best location. We have heard time and time again from indigenous that are promoting their programs that we non-indigenous do not know how to treat the indigenous addicts and they believe their own ways are the best ways.
The best location would be on an indigenous community where these people are off the ‘killing fields’ of Lethbridge the see too many young indigenous die from their addictions and lifestyle.
Is not 1206-6 avenue south the original Arches offices where they were supplying all the drug paraphernalia and open drug use was rampid before they moved most to the operation to the SCS site?
How much training do these recovery coaches have? I am skeptical after many at the SCS and LOPS had only weeks or a few months of training, yet had some fancy name the allowed them to be paid high wages.
We have too many of these non-profits surfacing in this city and they all end up asking various levels of government for funding, which means the taxpayer is on the hook!
Lethbridge taxpayers already pay millions per year to support this crisis and tens of millions more to provincial and federal programs that support the non-profits in this city.
More and more of these groups show up and the numbers on the streets increase. At one point, shelters for other major cities were sending their overflow to Lethbridge, because we had more room than us.
We need to stop this, reduce the number of non-profits and put our money into treatment programs for addiction and mental health!
Of course those ideas will be buried and I will officially give up Lethbridge as another Vancouver DTES abyss if the NDP get in and bring back the SCS and other harm reduction programs, which have failed and cost billions in BC. BC non-profits are a billion dollar industry now!