YOUTHS WITH SUBSTANCE ADDICTIONS WILL SOON GET HELP

KEREMEOS - The Okanagan is getting a new facility for treating youths
suffering from substance addictions, the provincial government
announced Thursday.

A 42-bed facility will be built in Keremeos and will become B.C.'s
first long-term residential treatment centre for addicted youth,
Premier Gordon Campbell said in a press release.

To be called The Crossing at Keremeos, the facility will be located on
a 58-acre area parcel of land 10 km outside of Keremeos, and 55 km
southwest of Penticton. It will service patients aged 14 to 24. The
site was formerly used by Outward Bound.

Construction of the facility is scheduled to begin this summer and be
completed by summer 2009. The province is contributing $2 million to
the project, with the rest of the $6 million being raised through
fund-raising efforts of the Vancouver-based Central City Foundation,
the release said.