TEEN CHALLENGE LIFE-SAVING FOR PEOPLE WITH ADDICTIONS

When Eric Vance decided to spend a year living on a farm with 12
other men, he was uncertain of his ability to beat his crack cocaine,
crystal meth and alcohol addictions. Now, 12 months later, the
20-year-old Vance says he's a new man.

"I'm a different person," said Vance, who spoke at the Teen Challenge
Saskatchewan fundraising barbecue Wednesday at the Preston Crossing
Canadian Tire.

Wednesday's barbecue celebrated $35,000 in financial aid and in-kind
donations from various Saskatoon-area companies to Teen Challenge Saskatchewan.

Teen Challenge Saskatchewan is a faith-based long-term residential
addictions recovery program based in Allan, a small town 50
kilometres southeast of Saskatoon. The centre has seen an 83 per cent
success rate since opening its doors 3 1/2 years ago, according to
associate regional director Robin Bellamy.

The program started 49 years ago in New York and now operates in 82
countries. Teen Challenge has been operating in Canada for 33 years
and, although the program's name suggests it's aimed at teens,
participants must be 18 years old before they qualify. In fact, the
majority of participants aren't teens.

Last month, participants moved out of the 12-bed 1,100-square-foot
house used since the program opened to the program's brand new
24-bed, $750,000 facility. The new centre features a dining hall,
study hall, computer lab, chapel and kitchen.

Bellamy says he's hoping to raise $40,000 from the barbecues that
take place every weekday until September at the Preston Crossing
Canadian Tire. The money will go toward the existing addiction centre
in Allan and also toward building another facility in St. Louis. The
plan is to move the men to St. Louis in order to open a women's
centre in Allan.

Teen Challenge Saskatchewan receives no funding from the provincial
government because of its faith-based status, but participants do not
have to be religious to qualify for help.

"You don't need to accept God to be in our program," says Bellamy.
"We believe getting into drugs is a choice, not a disease, so we
don't believe people have to fight this addiction the rest of their
lives. You simply choose to do it or not."

Participants are given a variety of chores while living at the
centre, whether it's helping out in the kitchen, shovelling grain or
mowing Allan residents' lawns.

"When you're on drugs, you throw away any kind of regular routine,"
says Bellamy. "One of our goals is to provide a very structured
routine so people can return to regular life."

Participants can work on finishing high school if they haven't
already done so, and are given the opportunity to discuss their life
stories at Sunday church services.

Vance says he's living proof the program works. He stresses the
necessity of a long-term rehabilitation program as opposed to 28-day
government treatments.

"It took me about four months before I started thinking straight
again," he says. "You really need a year to get your head on straight."

Vance doesn't like to think about the alternative had he not
volunteered for the Teen Challenge program.

"I could have died," he says. "This program literally saved my life."