One of the only remaining options for people seeking addiction treatment without leaving Sault Ste. Marie has closed and will be moving its services to Sudbury.
Northern Ontario Men’s Centre, also called Teen Challenge North, was a faith-based addiction treatment service that until recently operated eight beds at a site alongside the scenic Root River on Hwy. 17, just past Fourth Line. Closing after almost 24 years in operation, it was one of the last local options for addiction treatment in the Sault.
The decision to close the Sault Ste. Marie site and open an all-new, larger facility in Sudbury has been in the works for about six years, said Brent Campbell, director of marketing and communications for Teen Challenge Canada, which operates the Northern Ontario Men’s Centre and eight other sites throughout Canada.
Like just about everything else at the time, that decision to relocate the service to a community three hours away was up against a curveball starting in 2020.
"Shortly after the announcement — within 18 months COVID hit and everything kind of changed," said Campbell. "People were unsure at the best of times and then throw in addiction on top of that — it was really rough at the centre. We had stretches where we had just one or two people, as you can imagine."
The programming at Teen Challenge Canada is voluntary, one-year long and costs the person seeking treatment a total of $1,000.
"It’s a very affordable program and we exist on the backs of donors, businesses and churches that believe in and fund this program," said Campbell.
In 2019, Teen Challenge Canada received the zoning changes it required from Sudbury city council to build the 16-bed facility on Vermillion Lake Road near Dowling, but not without some protest from neighbouring residents.
Most of those new beds will service the one-year treatment option from Teen Challenge Canada, while others will be used for other phases of its programming.
Campbell said about 75 per cent of the people who were seeking treatment at the Northern Ontario Men’s Centre came from outside Northern Ontario and, in turn, many from Northern Ontario ended up in other Teen Challenge Canada facilities in southern Ontario, such as London.
“In the new centre we are going to be able to help more people," said Campbell. “Sault Ste. Marie has changed a lot in the last 15 years and we recognize the way we need to be available for northern Ontario it needs to be at the roots of a larger urban centre."
"As you can imagine, after 24 years, we have individuals and families whose lives have changed through that program," he added. "On the business side of things, we just couldn’t make it happen in Sault Ste. Marie — we needed to move to a larger centre."
Campbell said the organization has made a commitment to not leave northern Ontario and recently launched its Addiction Recovery Office at 344 Elgin Street in Sudbury. In the past two weeks, a total of 15 people have entered Teen Challenge Canada treatment through that office.
With the Sault centre now closed, Teen Challenge Canada is actively fundraising $2.5 million to have the new Northern Ontario Men’s Centre up and running as soon as possible. When complete, it will be all-new, purpose-built rehabilitation centre.
“We are hoping we can be completed and have people in the program in around two years, so shovels in the ground as soon as we can,” said Campbell.
The Sault Ste. Marie property will eventually be put on the market and the money raised from the sale will go toward the fundraising efforts for the Sudbury site. The listing price is to be determined.
Even though the Sault centre is now closed and those beds are temporarily not available, Campbell noted there are about 215 beds spread across the other eight centres in Canada operated by Teen Challenge Canada.
Connie Raynor-Elliott, founder of Sault Ste. Marie-based grassroots outreach agency SOYA, told SooToday the loss of Northern Ontario Men’s Centre is yet another blow to the city.
"It has been an amazing centre for multiple years in our city and I've seen first hand the success rate of male individuals get their life back," said Raynor-Elliott.
She said in the past 12 years, SOYA has supported a total of 142 individuals seeking treatment at the Teen Challenge Canada sites in Sault Ste. Marie and London.
"This loss is heartbreaking and I don't understand why we are losing services while our community is losing so many loved ones," said Raynor-Elliott.
Campbell said some staff remain at the Sault Ste. Marie site temporarily while it is being closed. At least some staff has been offered employment in Sudbury, but Campbell would not offer specifics.
“We have staff there who have been there for a very long time, we are talking decades," said Campbell. "We want to treat them well and if they desire to relocate that is between them and HR and some others are pursuing other options."
