A RECIPE FOR DELIVERANCE

1 Cup Of Training, 2 Heaping Cups Of Understanding, A Pinch Of
Responsibility

Students And Restaurants Benefit From Innovative Program

Asked how he's come to this most unique of cooking classes, Jeff
Fraser sets down the large knife he uses to slice carrots and offers
a list as though it was ingredients in a recipe: schizophrenia,
bipolar disorder, marijuana, hashish, tequila.

"But I just tell people I'm crazy," Fraser, 39, said with a laugh.
"I'm comfortable with that."

Welcome to the assistant cook extended training program at George
Brown College. For 36 weeks, students recovering from mental illness
or addiction are taught the full range of skills needed to work in
food services -- from proper kitchen hygiene to preparing a four-
course meal.

The menu is varied -- soups, entrees, pastries -- but the specialty
is second chances.

Students come from a multitude of age groups and ethnic backgrounds.
The unifying force is a desire to break free from despair or
substance abuse -- very often both -- and once again become
productive members of society.

"Too often, we identify these people by their illness," said Joanne
Campbell, of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, a partner in
the program. "The reality is that if you support people to overcome
those impediments that they have to success, then they can succeed."

The provincially funded program is believed to be the only one of its
kind in North America at a post-secondary level for this often
marginalized group.

While other schools, including George Brown, tailor courses to the
mentally ill and addicted, this is branded augmented education
because it takes them through training, helps them secure work and
follows up with on-the-job support after graduation.

The goal is to eventually have other colleges across Ontario and
elsewhere in Canada offering similar programs in a wide array of
specialties. George Brown hopes to have one in construction next year.

"We see this as a stepping stone," said Tony Priolo, a former high
school teacher and vocational rehabilitation counsellor who manages
the program. "The idea is to ultimately get these people back to work
and give them all the benefits that entails, like financial
independence, self-respect and dignity."

Now at the midpoint of its third year, the cooking program has
graduated more than 30 students. About 85 per cent promptly landed
jobs in restaurant kitchens, cafeterias and other food services.

Jamilyn Roy is among them. A veteran of about 15 years in numerous
Toronto restaurant kitchens, her world fell apart when she broke her
back. Laid up, she became depressed and addicted to painkillers.

Today, after "being in hiding for a couple of years," Roy, 33, has
completed the George Brown program, landed one part-time job cooking
at Mount Sinai Hospital and another as a culinary assistant in the
kitchen with this year's class.

"I didn't think I'd ever cook again, but here I am," Roy said as she
helped prepare chicken bouillon with fine egg noodles. "This program
saved me."

Most in the program are on social assistance. From an annual budget
of about $450,000, Queen's Park pays for tuition, books, uniforms,
safety boots and a knife set. A Metropass is also thrown in to help
them get to the St. James Campus in downtown Toronto.

While not coddled, consideration is given to students' illness. If
their medication is making them sick or they are simply having a bad
day, instructors will cut some slack and let them skip a lecture or
prepare that lesson's dish at a later date.

Staff also work with employers who offer unpaid work experience
during the two-semester program and prospective employment upon
graduation. The idea is to help them understand some of the strengths
and limitations of the students.

But with that leniency comes responsibility. Students know they have
to complete all of their course requirements to graduate. It's also
stressed that employers have a business to run, so it's important
they show up on time, or at the very least call in if they are sick.

"We treated them like any other employee looking to get their foot in
the door and build up experience," said Ryan Burpee, chef at Mitzi's
Sister, which gave work placements to two students last year. "If
they wanted to come out and tell me why they were in the program,
fine, but I never asked."

Burpee still employs one of the students at his restaurant on Queen
St. W. in Parkdale and has been told the other is still working in
the industry. He's taking on another student for a work placement
during the second semester of this year's course, which begins today.

"I wouldn't do that unless I was happy and satisfied with the first
experience," he said.

Everyone agrees the ultimate aim is to get recovering people back to
work and keep them there. But along the way, program officials,
employers and especially the students themselves say the lessons they
are learning in school are teaching them about the importance of
taking control of their lives.

Jeff Fraser is a case in point. Sure, he's tired these days. But it's
the fatigue of working hard at school, not the paralyzing exhaustion
so common during more than a decade of battling mental illness and
addiction.

In the cooking program, Fraser has found a reason to stay on the
medication he once shunned, and avoid the drugs and alcohol he spent
so much time craving.

"When I got sick, I lost all my confidence," he said. "Now, I'm
getting it back. I feel good."