'This is our community; we are cleaning it together': Addiction recovery home helps clean Windsor's west end
One local addiction recovery home is stepping up and giving back to the community, cleaning up the west end while combatting addiction.
“I’ve been battling with drug addiction pretty much my entire life,” said 35-year-old Bradley Currie.
Currie is one of 44 men in recovery at the Hand in Hand Support home.
“While being here I started to believe in myself. I started to see things, I’ve never seen in myself,” said Currie.
Hand in Hand Support is a non-profit sober living facility helping people with addiction-recovery.
“We want to help these individuals get into recovery because everyone deserves a second chance,” said Liz Geddes, board president of Hand in Hand Support.
“We are offering this as a way to gap that need so for someone who is going into treatment. They can stay here until they are ready to go into treatment or they can do their whole treatment with us."
After a 10-year battle with drugs and alcohol, Currie found the help he needed at Hand in Hand.
“I ended up graduating here and we decided to integrate a new phase which is a working program,” said Currie. “So it gives me a chance to have opportunity in my life, coming from where I was before, it was very hard for me to see the opportunity.”
Local food delivery service Jubzi teamed up with the non-profit organization to clean up Windsor's west-end streets Saturday.
“There’s a portion of the community that feels individuals that suffer addiction should fend for themselves, they’re a burden in our community,” said Jubzi CEO Thanos Zikantas. “These individuals appreciate the support they are getting and they are giving back. This is our community, we are cleaning it together.”
Giving back throughout the recovery proccess helps residents work towards reconciliation, according to Hand in Hand.
“When someone is in recovery they have to be accountable and be able to go out there and give back,” said Geddes. “Going out and feeling good about themselves, going out and doing the cleanup, it gives them self-worth. That they are worth it and recovery is worth it.”
For Currie, he now feels free and is grateful for his second chance at life.
“The only way, I find, to open my heart is to reach out and to give back to the community, to people, to Mother Earth we live on," said Currie.
"There is a certain gratitude that’s comes from giving back that puts you in a good, healthy state of mind."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Loblaw leaders call criticism 'misguided,' say they aren't to blame for high food prices
Loblaw chairman Galen Weston and the company's new CEO are pushing back against critics who blame the grocery giant for soaring food prices, as a month-long boycott of the retailer gets underway.
Three Quebec men from same family father hundreds of children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
B.C. mayor stripped of budget, barred from committees over Indigenous residential schools book
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
'Giant-killer' Kazushi Kimura to race in Kentucky Derby this weekend: 'I'm representing Canada and Japan'
Six years ago, at age 18, Kazushi Kimura left his home and family behind in Hokkaido, Japan to chase a dream. This weekend, he'll ride in the Kentucky Derby.
Quebec premier asks police to dismantle camp at McGill University
Quebec Premier Francois Legault has called on the police to dismantle the pro-Palestinian protest encampment on the lower field of McGill University's downtown campus in Montreal.
Orangutan observed treating wound using medicinal plant in world first
Scientists working in Indonesia have observed an orangutan intentionally treating a wound on their face with a medicinal plant, the first time this behavior has been documented.
TD Bank hit with $9.2M penalty after failing to report suspicious transactions
Canada’s financial-crime watchdog has levied a $9.2-million penalty against The Toronto-Dominion Bank for non-compliance with money laundering and terrorist financing measures as the bank also faces compliance investigations in the U.S.
Doctors concerned about potential spread of bird flu in Canada
H5N1 or avian flu has been detected at dozens of U.S. dairy farms and Canadian experts are urging surveillance on our side of the border too.