Prof. Theresa Healy from UNBC’s School of Planning and Sustainability is the first recipient of the Bob Scott Award presented by the Drug Awareness Recovery Team (D.A.R.T.) in Prince George.
The award, created as D.A.R.T. celebrates its 25th anniversary, is named after the organization’s founder Bob Scott who passed away in 2008.
“I am truly honoured to be selected as the first recipient of the annual Bob Scott award. I knew Bob well and he was an inspiration to me, as well as a friend and colleague,” Healy says. “He was a man of faith who understood forgiveness, he was a man of action who understood the necessity of patience and a tower of strength in believing change was possible, from the individual wrapped in struggles with addiction to the larger collective and policy questions that need our best as a society.”
Healy has earned community praise over the years for her on-the-ground support for community groups in Prince George, including writing grant proposals and facilitating projects. She helped to spearhead the Stone Soup Kitchen project that addressed food insecurity in marginalized populations by providing food preparation and cooking skills in a community kitchen.
Healy worked with Scott during his time with D.A.R.T. and said he had a calm belief in the power to move unmovable obstacles but brought a formidable intellect to the work of community building. She said he often spoke of the quadruple bottom line, balancing financial, environmental, social justice and human dignity in decision-making.
“D.A.R.T. was infused with his vision of calm, patient, agency for social change but also with his astute assessment of the revolving door incarceration becomes without a bridge over the shark-infested river that newly released people fell back into without support,” Healy says. “Most people think sharks are only in the ocean. Bob knew they were operating right beneath our nose. He saw sober and clean former addicts exiting prison, but that clean and sober state was not seen as a foundation for better futures but ignored so people fell prey to the same circumstances that landed them in jail in the first place.”
D.A.R.T. will present the Bob Scott Award annually to an individual, group of people, business, organization or agency that exemplifies integrity, leadership and inspiration in contributing to the betterment of the Prince George community.
D.A.R.T. was developed by Bob Scott (a recovering addict) in 1997 to meet the needs of those in recovery, to offer them equal access, healthy personal connections and a sense of control, to fill the gap in the drug and alcohol service industry and to integrate members of this subculture back into the community as full participants. In October 2000, D.A.R.T. was registered as a community Millennium Project. In December 2000 it was incorporated as a Society. In 2004, Bob received the British Columbia Community Achievement Award for his spirit, dedication, imagination and contribution to his community.
