Kettle and Stony Point's new wellness hub and recovery home is expected to open its doors in just over a month.
The site, located at the former St. John's Anglican Church on Stoneybrook Drive, is part of the expansion of the First Nation's Mental Health and Addictions department.
Manager Julie George said at the moment, the department operates as part of Kettle and Stony Point Health Services.
"But with some influx of money from a number of different sources, the ministry of health is one, we're able to expand our department," said George. "So we're going to become a standalone department in the First Nation, and we're going to be called the Mental Health and Wellness Hub and Recovery Home."
George said the expansion is part of a bigger strategy to approach mental health and addiction from a healing and wellness strategy.
"So upstairs in the hub we're going to have our therapy spaces and our staff offices and a family room, and so that's where our community mental health and addictions services will operate," she said. "And then downstairs in the basement we're going to have four beds available."
George said they're hoping to expand that to eight beds, four for women and four for men, in the near future, and that they're probably going to bring a trailer or module home on site to add more beds.
George said the core services they currently offer are based around community mental health and addictions.
"And then we're also going to offer a recovery home which is going to be transitional housing for community members who come home from treatment," she said. "And in addition to that, we're going to operate an out-of-the-cold program, which is an emergency overnight shelter during the cold weather months." She said the fourth component is going to be what they're referring to as a land-based healing program.
George said like every First Nation community, they're experiencing what's referred to as an opioid crisis.
"In this community, compared to other communities, [the crisis] seems to be a little bit more extensive, and I think that's because we have a long history of historical trauma," she said. "Of course, we have community members that attended Indian residential schools, but we also have other traumas related to the Ipperwash Crisis and different kinds of abuse that have impacted this community."
The project, which was launched in December shortly after a new chief and council was elected, is expected to cost around $600,000. Renovations to the former Anglican church began in March, and George is hoping for an opening date of September 11.
With the expansion to a standalone department, the recovery home is also looking for a new logo.
"We wanted to put the logo contest out to the community so they could give us an idea of what heeling and wellness means to them," said George.
Submissions are being accepted until August 4 -- for more details, click here.