The DTES has a high concentration of substance abusers that often are victims of other social circumstances that affect the area. Some of the other social issues in the DTES- homelessness, poverty, and mental illness- play a role in sustaining and aggravating drug addiction. The presence of these other factors likely increase pressure on substance abusers and intensify the difficulty in addiction treatment and overcoming addiction.
A these social issues may be addressed by a multi-purpose facility that tackles a number of these issues at once- providing proper shelter, adequate nutrition and health services, addiction treatment, and mental health counseling. The overall objective would be to provide a place for substance abusers in the DTES to live for an extended period of time with the necessities they are not obtaining adequately in the DTES. This includes a comprehensive program to provide the necessary means and support for dealing with their addictions. It would be located in an area outside the DTES itself in order to remove participants from the circumstances they are used to and provide them with a refreshing and novel environment to inspire life changes.
The facility would be run by a government agency in order to provide it with the necessary long-term intensive support and funding. This is also a means for ensuring the goals and objectives to make transformative changes in individual lives and the community is maintained, as a social enterprise or for profit business may stray from these.
The transformative potential will be measured by the impact that is catalyzed by the changes inspired in the lives of participants and more long-term transformations in the community itself. This is obviously a very large and intensive undertaking requiring long term commitments, however, radical transformations may be realized for the community in the future by first addressing the individual needs and separate social issues in the DTES.
As this is a large undertaking limitations to its impact must be considered. Building and organizing a facility like this is time consuming not to mention the coordination needed among levels of government. This also requires a long term, intensive commitment in support and funding to be successful and catalyze transformations in the community. This will contribute to its initially low impact. It may also be difficult to demonstrate to substance abusers in the DTES the benefits of leaving their community for a facility like this, which may make reaching those of greatest need challenging.
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