GATEWAY RECOVERY CENTER ENJOYS NEW EXPANDED HOME

About three or four years ago, Gateway Community Services began to
see a growing demand for its services.

Before long, they had outgrown their 7,650-square-foot building
located north of the Cascade County Courthouse, said Judy Kolar,
Gateway's executive director.

Gateway Community Services, which is an umbrella agency for the
Gateway Recovery Center, Grace Home and drug and alcohol prevention
services, leased some extra space downtown for a time. About three
years ago, Gateway administrators and its board of directors started
looking for a new building.

It took them a while to find an ideal location, but in January, they
moved into a medical office building at 1220 Central Ave.

They were housed in temporary office space until recently, when a
remodel of their current office space was complete.

"This move was a huge step for us," Kolar said.

A new building had to meet three criteria: it had to be located
downtown, have more parking than the old location and be handicap
accessible. It took a while to find one, she said, but this one is a
good fit.

Gateway shares its new building with some other tenants, but with
almost 18,600 square feet, it's a majority owner of the building.

"We've got a lot of square footage in this building," Kolar
said.

Right now, it's more space than they need, she said, but she's sure
they'll grow into it.

"Our numbers keep going up every year," she said.

Last year, Gateway Community Services saw a 13 percent increase in
patient care, Kolar said.

The Gateway Recovery Center offers alcohol and drug intervention and
counseling through group sessions and one-on-one therapy.

Most of its patients are there because of court orders.

"The majority of our population doesn't come here because they want
to," she said.

Gateway is seeing a rising demand for its services for a number of
reasons.

One is that drug treatment courts are becoming more prevalent, which
results in offenders being referred to Gateway rather than being
incarcerated, Kolar said.

Methamphetamine use also plays a role.

Alcohol and marijuana are the two addictions Gateway sees most
frequently, but the psychological effects of meth make it more
difficult to treat, Kolar said.

"It just affects people so severely," Kolar said. "That's what's
scary about it."

There also seems to be a growing awareness about addictions and less
of a stigma associated with them, she said.

As for some of Gateway's extra space, Kolar hopes to be able to move
Grace Home to the top floor of the Central Avenue building.

They'd like to term the new building "a recovery campus," she
said.

Grace Home, currently located at 2211 5th Ave. N., offers a
transitional living program for alcohol- and drug-addicted women who
are pregnant or have dependent children.

The building can house six families in a dorm-style
residence.

"They've always got a waiting list," Kolar said.

Kolar would like to remodel part of the Central Avenue building with
small, independent-living apartments. There still would be a
community area and a common kitchen, but the apartment-style living
would offer families more privacy.

Along with the new building, Gateway also purchased three lots in the
rear of the building that it will be able to develop down the road.

The building was initially priced at $600,000, but the Great Falls
Clinic, the previous owner, sold it to Gateway, along with the three
lots for $250,000.

Gateway never would have been able to afford the building without
that generosity, Kolar said.

The Great Falls Clinic once housed its immediate care center in that
building, but had since outgrown it, said John Kinna, assistant
administrator for the Clinic.

In the bigger picture of health care in the community, Gateway's
services are extremely valuable, he said.

Helping them get into a large building was a great way to allow them
to grow, he said.

"For us, it was just a natural fit," Kinna said.