Richard plans to attend UVic. Allan has his hopes trained on UNBC.
It wasn't long ago that neither of them could aspire to much more than where their next fix was coming from, but these two mature men just put on cap and gown and accepted the high school diploma they never had until earning new lives at the Baldy Hughes Therapeutic Community.
Part of the programs offered by the residential addictions treatment centre is an education. Many of those who live there have never earned their basic graduation, which contributes to their life challenges.
"Treating addiction, we can't just look at dealing with substance use, we have to treat the whole person," said executive director Marshall Smith.
"The science behind Baldy Hughes shows that the men participating in our program are more likely to be successful in remaining abstinent from substance use if they participate in learning programs during treatment. Baldy Hughes is the only addictions treatment facility in the province where participants can earn their education while undergoing treatment for substance dependence."
Smith said 54 per cent of Baldy Hughes residents (more than 70) are enrolled in the high school program. Three of them were part of the most recent graduating class. Richard and Allan were two of them.
"I was getting As right up until junior high. From Grade 8 on it was a bit of a gong show," said Richard. "It was nice to get back on track and be achieving things again."
"It was an option I was unaware of at Baldy Hughes when I first arrived," said Allan. "It (lack of graduation) really bothered me. I worked in the forest industry and the oil and gas industry, but it was a nagging thing that I always felt was unfinished - another thing to drag yourself down.
"Joining school at Baldy Hughes was the second good decision I made that month. The first was to follow the tearful requests of my family to do something to pull myself back from the edge. Give them back their kid."
Each resident has a different starting point when they make the choice to pursue their dogwood through the Baldy Hughes program.
Richard had to pick up back at Grade 10 where he quit as a youth starting into his chemically altered state.
"Dropping out was a really unhappy decision for me," he said. "I was partying too much. I always wanted to go to university, so leaving school was a hard thing for me. To be offered a reconnection to school, I jumped in with both feet. I felt motivated again."
Allan only needed to cap off some Grade 12 credits he was missing, and the diploma was finally his.
"I can remember what it was like seven months ago (when he joined Baldy Hughes)," he said, "but I can't believe what I considered to be normal or acceptable."
One of the biggest fans of the educational component of Baldy Hughes is MLA Shirley Bond, a former school trustee in Prince George where the facility is located, and the former Minister of Education.
"This is another example of how Baldy Hughes is changing lives," said Bond.
"Education is key to opening up doors of opportunity and I want to commend all of the graduates for having the courage and determination to complete this milestone in their bright futures."
The entire program is channeled into Baldy Hughes by School District 57. It is carried out by teacher and administrator Peter Goudal, a man who inspires reverential sighs and grateful pauses of emotion among the students at the mention of his name.
"Everything that might have been a difficulty, we had Peter there, a wonderful guy, he kept you on the right track," said Allan. "He inspires a lot of guys to get into it, stay in it, and try even harder when it seems a little hopeless."
He got Richard back to his straight-A status, and it won the mature student the Mark O'Neill Memorial Award, a bursary to continue his dream of going to university. Smith said seed money for educational pursuits would be appreciated, as time went on. Plans are underway to establish a collection pool like a foundation where public donations and other investments can be made to benefit exiting students who have the promise of post-secondary opportunities.
"We will do more bursaries as time goes on," he said. "We need to put a focus on education here, and the next generation of treatment communities must be campuses of wellness and education in order for our society to promote real change."
Good, Good Goudal
When the school bell rang at Baldy Hughes Therapeutic Community for the first time, it was February 2008.
Teacher and administrator Peter Goudal had two students. Now he is over 30 at a time, all in varying stages of educational background. Some are youth who are trying to keep on track, some are grown adults who want to pick up where they dropped off.
All are also wrestling with the effects of addiction.
"My first class was in the old curling rink. It was the only room that had heat in it," he said.
"We were dancing around the drips because the roof had leaks in it. Now they have built us a great classroom space. It was part of the construction experience for the residents, they do all the work on their own facility, and they really made a terrific space for learning."
The students hold Remembrance Day ceremonies, Christmas concerts, there is a reader's theatre, and whenever a student completes a course, there is a certificate presented and a public announcement made to the other residents.
It affirms the students, said Goudal, and it motivates the entire Baldy Hughes population to see the small steps of success.
"They work at it (lessons) at their own pace," Goudal said. "The expectation on them is that they work at their courses during their free time, in their rooms, and we have times together as well.
"Most of these guys are quite bright. Some have prior learning challenges, some have been involved before in special-needs programs, there are a few but only a few who have discernible brain damage apparently as a result of their drug use. All of them that I've seen, no matter what their background, can learn and can benefit from school during their recovery process."
He said math upgrading is his most popular request from the resident students. It is commonly an area students struggle with in the original years of school, so they want to take advantage of the one-on-one instruction now.
It is also a common prerequisite to trades and science pursuits many of these students are interested in for the future.
"The other one, believe it or not, especially among the guys who have already graduated, is creative writing," he said.
Perhaps this will lead to greater telling of the stories behind the men who live at Baldy Hughes, men who have taken definitively interesting paths to this point in their lives, but have rarely had the voice to express it. Baldy Hughes is helping them find that voice, turning the hard lessons of their life into lessons in the classroom.
