By Pam Wright
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
A zoning change to allow a men’s sober living home to continue to operate in Chatham has received unanimous support from C-K council.
Located at 20 Joseph St., Journeys Recovery Home began operating in June 2023. It offers a faith-based program for adult males struggling with trauma and substance use disorder.
However, because the property was zoned residential, council needed to allow the house an additional permitted use as a temporary care facility.
The 90-day program at Journeys Recovery offers programming that incorporates Alcoholics Anonymous, cognitive behaviour therapy, dialectical behaviour therapy, as well as prayer and spiritually based meetings. The home has beds for seven residents and one full-time counsellor.
Many are singing the facility’s praises, as outlined in deputations made to council at a recent meeting.
Neighbour Margaret Butler, who lives across from Journeys Recovery, urged council to support the zoning change, saying the organization has brought welcome change to her street.
“There’s healing going on right in front of my eyes every day,” Butler told council, stating problems like petty theft associated with substance abuse have decreased since the recovery home opened.
Butler, a single mom and domestic abuse survivor, said the fellows from Journeys Recovery are restoring her faith in men, checking in on her and offering to do chores such as snow shovelling.
“They don’t need seven beds, they need 12,” Butler stressed. “They need one of the empty schools. This is the solution to Chatham’s problems.”
Rev. Michael Koppes, long-serving pastor at Praise Fellowship Church, and a Chatham-Kent police chaplain, said he’s witnessed remarkable change in the men who have been part of Journeys Recovery.
“I’ve seen a real, genuine lasting healing in these men,” Koppes told council. “Men who have a new-found hope – a new lease on life, if you will.”
Koppes said the program is taking the addicted off the streets, giving them an opportunity to not only heal from addiction, but to start fresh, as contributing members of society, restored to the community and their families.
“This is a program that’s working,” the pastor added, saying he believes Journeys Recovery is the “answer we’ve all been looking for.”
In speaking to the issue, Mayor Darrin Canniff said he is inspired by the success of Journeys Recovery.
“Thank you to everyone for what you are doing,” the mayor said. “It warms my heart.”
