Singing sensation Chantal Kreviazuk has lent her high profile to the Baldy Hughes Addiction Treatment Centre and Therapeutic Community.
Two weeks ago, two secretive fundraisers for Baldy Hughes saw a chance to win a Kreviazuk performance at private homes in Prince George and Vancouver for 40 guests.
The $2,000-per-plate dinner concerts raised more than $100,000 for Baldy Hughes, a provincially-owned residential facility for men, where Kreviazuk's brother Trevor has been receiving treatment for the past year.
Jim and Maureen Rustad hosted the Prince George function.
Over the past year, Kreviazuk has made several trips to city to visit her brother. Although she could not be reached for comment, she offered her thoughts with posts to her Twitter account on Oct. 30, while awaiting a flight to her home in Los Angeles.
"Leaving Vancouver after 2 fundraisers for Baldy Hughes rehab center/therapeutic community. On a soul bender at the moment. Truly high," Kreviazuk wrote. "Gotta express my gratitude to the brave men at Baldy Hughes. Thanks for havin me up to Prince George. Thanks to the generous souls.
"Compassion. Got it? Gotta get it people. Greatest inspiration to me, seeing compassionate people at work. How do YOU want to be known?"
Rich Coleman, the B.C. Minister for Housing, was among the guests at the Vancouver dinner and said he was impressed with Kreviazuk's commitment.
"Chantal really helped [engage young people at the performance] because she spoke pretty emotionally about her own brother's situation and how hard it is on the family," said Coleman. "She's soft-spoken and you can see the compassion she has for her brother and people with other disabilities and addictions. Then she sits down at the piano and out comes this unbelievable voice."
Other members of the Kreviazuk family came from Winnipeg to lend their support, said Coleman.
The province helped Baldy Hughes in December 2010, ending a period of financial uncertainty that threatened the facility's future. BC Housing took over management in July, replacing a board appointed by the B.C. New Hope Recovery Society.
Allegations of mismanagement by the Vancouver-based board, which was said to be interfering with the daily operations of the centre, led to the resignations of Northern directors Selen Alpay, Jaret Clay, and executive director Marshall Smith, who all left in March.
That came 18 months after directors Brian Fehr and Tom Sentes resigned their posts. In July, Fehr was reappointed to the board, a week after residents staged a two-day protest.
Coleman said he's confident the centre's organizational troubles are now behind it.
"I'm really keen on this particular project, because it's the whole outcome of the therapeutic community versus the clinical 28-day program," Coleman said.
"We know, seeing the outcome of some of the guys coming from Baldy Hughes, we're having a better outcome from the therapeutic community and we needed a place to prove it out."
Located in a scenic forested area, a 30-minute drive southwest of Prince George, Baldy Hughes provides an isolated and controlled residential environment requiring its male residents to follow a strict program to treat their problems, which range from drugs and gambling to sexual addictions and overeating.
Currently there is no comparable adult facility in the province, but Coleman said the government plans to follow the same model for a treatment centre in Logan Lake, which he said will open once it finds an operator.
Coleman said he visits Baldy Hughes regularly and has heard a number of success stories of families reunited after their fathers and brothers returned from treatment.
"I talked to a young First Nations guy who was 22 or 23 and he told me he hadn't been sober since he was 12," Coleman said. "He started sniffing glue, and there he was at Baldy Hughes, where he'd been clean for 10 months. What struck me the most was he said, 'I lived in an environment where I totally had no love or respect for myself. I found out I could love myself and trust people.'
"You just can't explain, when somebody gets their life back together, how much it has a positive impact not just on them and the people around them but the family that raised them."
Coleman expects a new executive director at Baldy Hughes will be announced within the next two weeks. The two shortlisted candidates, he said, are both from Prince George.
"We are going to move the board to be a more northern-based board," said Coleman. "That's why Brian Fehr went on there for me. I asked him to, and we're thinking of some other folks locally. Over time, you want the board to be more related to the community."
