Grace House celebrates official opening

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. – Fort St. John Pentecostal Church members, along with other residents, gathered Saturday afternoon to witness the official opening of Grace House, a recovery program for women transitioning from rehab to a more independent lifestyle.

Grace House is a second-stage house for women who have gone through rehab or detox and need a place to go after being released from those facilities.

The program is nine to twelve months long and focuses on spiritual growth, continued recovery from substance abuse disorders, work ethic, life skills, and physical wellbeing.

House coordinator, Darlene McLaughlin, says Grace House has been a dream of hers for over a decade and was born out of her own experiences with addiction.

“I was an alcoholic substance abuser. I was groomed and trafficked in Winnipeg for a short time and managed to live through that,” McLaughlin said.

“Some girls didn’t get away so easily,” she remarked.

Since going through her recovery, McLaughlin says the idea of Grace House was always in the back of her mind.

“I went for my interior design diploma, and in the middle of that, I thought to myself: You’re learning to walk into like a house that’s trashed and see that this space can be beautiful,” she recalled.

“I thought, ‘What about the women out there whose lives are trashed? You know what’s possible because you’ve experienced that.’ To see the beauty of the potential of someone’s life no matter what they’ve been through, I can’t get away from that.”

The process to open Grace House began when McLaughlin’s husband, a pastor at the Pentecostals of Fort St John, went before city council to talk about their tax grant and was asked, “What are you doing for your community?”

He explained that they have always opened up their building to recovery groups for meetings, but he also mentioned his wife’s long-standing desire to start a women’s house.

“Lori Ackerman said, ‘have her call me,’ and she was right on board with it. And it just kind of gave me the confidence that this is the time to do it,” McLaughlin explained.

From there, Ackerman’s husband, a non-profit grant writer, helped direct the couple to where they could possibly get funding.

The house holds three rooms dedicated to the memory of women who were associated with the Changing Lanes recovery group but lost their lives, either to addiction or other hazards related to the lifestyle. It contains the Vanessa Haggstrom Room, the Shirley Cletheroe Room and the Kandis Hunter room.

At the opening ceremony of the house, survivors and loved ones of those who were lost to addiction shared their stories.

“I was three weeks into Changing Lanes and had thrown away all of my just-in-case stashes. I was delivered from addictions and the mental health struggles I dealt with. I received a miracle which helped me stay and move forward,” one survivor, Melissa, said.

Mayor Lori Ackerman also shared her gratitude to Fort St. John Pentecostal Church for the impact she believes Grace House will have on the community.

“When I heard about your dream and your vision, it just made sense. Our housing assessment speaks to the fact that this community needs anywhere from 10 to 23 of these beds. Eight of them have just been built, which is over a third. Thank you so much,” Ackerman said.

Ackerman says the housing assessment also shows a clear deficit in services for vulnerable women looking to get on the path to recovery.

“The environment they’re living in doesn’t allow them to even out that path of recovery — you can go for detox in this province, but where do you find a healthy and safe environment to recover? We have it now.”

Ackerman adds that the opening is not only an opportunity to celebrate but to start erasing the stigma and shame that surrounds addiction and substance use.

“I highly doubt there is anyone out there who has not been touched by this in some way, shape, or form,” Ackerman said.

When it comes to addiction and substance use, McLaughlin says there’s a difference between sobriety and recovery and when an individual’s focus is strictly sobriety, it often isn’t sustainable.

“I’m not saying it doesn’t work, but recovery is more of a guarantee because, in recovery, you’re learning how to cope with things you couldn’t cope with before or learning to cope with things you haven’t coped with since starting drugs and alcohol,” she explained.

She says when it comes to the guilt and the shame that surrounds substance use, individuals need a recovery process, not just sobriety.

McLaughlin has some advice for those who struggle to understand addiction and substance use: Try not to use your phone for 72 hours.

“You don’t realize how addicted you are to something until you try to go with it. Maybe it’s not drugs for them. Maybe it’s their phone,” she explained.

“Put down your phone for 72 hours. Don’t touch it, and think about the drive to stop the habit or the temptation to use it, or justifying why and all that kind of stuff. Addiction is not a choice, not after the first time.”

Grace House was made possible by donations from the BC Hydro Go Fund, the BC UPCI Ladies Ministries, Walmart, Shell Canada, and the Pentecostals of Fort St. John.

Those interested in supporting the house can contact McLaughlin at 250-793-2283 or email darlene@penfsj.com.