Women praise continuation of Kate’s Place for Regina addicts

“I came in 63 pounds, didn’t have a place to live, very sickly, couldn’t keep up with my HIV medication,” Morris explained. “Then they took me to Kate’s Place.”

With 24-hour support from staff, Morris says they helped her find herself again and get her life back on track. The women there became like her family but also helped her reconnect with her daughter and two grandkids as she struggled to get clean.

“It gave me my life back. It gave me a future of hope that I can do better with my life,” she said.

Today she has been clean for 19 months and now acts as a mentor for other women in Drug Treatment Court. She says Kate’s Place helped her face her addictions and become the person she was meant to be by offering support instead of judgment.

“In jail, you just exist. You have to strive to stay alive, but here you’re able to live full and healthy lives with our families where before we were hiding in dark corners in a dark lonely place,” Morris said.

Morris is one of 47 women who have come through the doors at Kate’s Place since it opened in 2012. The supportive housing building began as a two-year pilot project with one-time funding from the federal government’s Homelessness Partnering Strategy.

With eight successful graduates in two years and five more women set to graduate from Drug Treatment Court by the end of this year, the provincial government considers the program to be successful.

On Wednesday Saskatchewan Justice Minister Gordon Wyant announced $200,000 in funding on top of the $50,000 provided earlier this year to keep Kate’s Place open.

“If it wasn’t for Kate’s Place, many of these women would end up back in the situations that they found themselves in that gave rise to their interaction with Drug Treatment Court to begin with,” Wyant commented.

He noted that Regina’s Drug Treatment Court is one of the most successful programs in the country.

“It’s good for society when we can divert people out of the criminal justice system, when we can encourage people to improve their lives through education and training,” he said.

The funding has not been officially extended beyond one year, but Wyant noted that the government will continue to evaluate the success of the program.

“We’ll consider additional funding in future years as we develop our budget. It’s certainly a priority for me as minister and for my ministry but we have to consider that in the context of the entire budget,” Wyant said.

The announcement was also a relief to another member of the crowd, a graduate named Susan who asked to use only her first name because she works in the community now.

“I was so heavily addicted that I felt that I could never get out of it. I kind of felt like it was a death sentence,” Susan said. “If it wasn’t for Drug Court and Kate’s Place, I would have lost my son because I was pregnant at the time.”

Now two-and-a-half years old, he was not among the four drug-free babies born to residents at Kate’s Place. But she says he learned to crawl, walk and talk at Kate’s Place while she worked on turning her life around.

“I learned how to be responsible and I learned how to be productive, how to pay my bills, get a job,” Susan explained.

To her, Kate’s Place was more than a women’s residence, it was a home where she had a built-in network of friends to fill the kind of isolation that comes when you cut off your drug lifestyle.

“My life now is better than I ever imagined it,” Susan said.

“I have a job where I work with at-risk youth so I feel I’m really giving back. I wake up every day and I’m grateful and I’m happy I love what I do.”

She had the chance to change her life, and when she thought of others who might have missed that opportunity if Kate’s Place were to close, she felt sick. Now she can rest easier knowing that others can follow in her path.

by Adriana Christianson

Women praise continuation of Kate’s Place for Regina addicts

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