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Finish Line Program making a life-changing difference for Red Deer students battling difficulties

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Over 400 students graduate through The Finish Line Program

It’s graduation time for 802 students in Red Deer Public Schools, but the journey to cross the stage isn’t the same for everyone. For some it’s been a real challenge.

Through the Finish Line Program, over 400 students have earned their high school diplomas over the last number of years. These students, who were no longer in school and had not completed their high school graduation requirements, would not have graduated if it wasn’t for Finish Line.

“Now more than ever, achieving a high school diploma is important. It creates life chances,” said Kristine Plastow, Chair of the Foundation for Red Deer Public Schools. “Employers are asking for a minimum of a high school diploma when looking at candidates, and often those candidates are required to upgrade for post secondary to gain acceptance into a chosen field. Finish Line allows students who did not graduate an opportunity to complete their diploma and reach their full potential.”

Finish Line works to identify students who are no longer in school, and who have not completed their high school graduation requirements. For some students, they may have been a few credits short of earning their diploma, and for others the task may have seemed monumental, but with the help of Program Coordinator Sharon Schultz, they were able to achieve their goal.

“Students are surprisingly honest when they are asked about their academic history,” said Sharon. “They may not be proud of their lack of completion, but they are now ready to reach that finish line. Many will say that getting a call and having someone welcome them to the completion process is the first step. Most have said that they would not have taken the initiative on their own had they not been contacted for the program.”

With the COVID-19 pandemic, the past year has presented new challenges for many, but there have been many opportunities as well.

“This school year, 35 students accessed the Finish Line Program. Each of these individuals have unique stories and backgrounds, and have worked hard to complete courses,” said Sharon.

Some of the students of the program this year included a single mom who works full time and is raising her four-year-old son. Another young girl working as a hospital aide, can now apply for the Bachelor of Nursing program because of her high school diploma.

“With the pandemic, there has been a large increase in overage students wanting to complete their high school courses. Being laid off from a current job, being unable to find work, and being driven by the basic need to be productive, led to a huge increase in overage students accessing the program,” said Sharon.

For Lisa, high school was one of the hardest times in her life. Lisa battled with mental health issues, while trying to navigate an ever-changing friend group and trying to figure out who she wanted to be as a person. As a result, she struggled to stay in school.

“I felt like I was alone in trying to move forward,” she said, speaking of her desire to continue with school but constantly feeling overwhelmed. “The struggle of school was still so hard on my mental health that it was healthier for me to just not finish at that time.”

When Lisa dropped out of her Grade 12 year, she had 27 of 100 credits needed to graduate. While working full-time, Lisa received a letter from the Finish Line Program.

“I didn’t know what it entailed but I was ready at that point to see what my options were,” said Lisa. “I met with Mrs. Schultz and she told me that even though I had only 27 credits, I had really good marks so she knew something probably was going on. This is the first time I felt really understood. I explained my story to her and like a loving mother she comforted me and we set up a plan for me to fully succeed. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy but now I had her and her support by my side.”

Two years after their initial meeting and putting in the work with lots of encouragement and support from Sharon, Lisa graduated from high school.

“The support didn’t stop there though, and it still continues today,” Lisa said of Sharon. “Besides being with me throughout my school life, she has even seen me get married, go through college and will be here for when my first child is born. I would be in a much different place and headspace if it wasn’t for the Finish Line Program and Mrs. Schultz especially.”

The Finish Line Program is a project of the Foundation for Red Deer Public Schools and would not be possible without the generosity of community support. Thank you to our sponsors including Nova Chemicals, Servus Credit Union, Central Alberta Co-op, Berry Architecture, Border Paving, the Red Deer Rebels, the Kiwanis Club of Red Deer and Andy and Christine Metzger.

“The Finish Line Program continues to serve a very valuable need in our community,” said Sharon. “This program is viable, sustainable, and life changing for many. Thanks to the sponsors, young people are achieving.”

* Lisa’s name has been changed to protect her privacy

Community

SPARC Red Deer – Caring Adult Nominations open now!

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Red Deer community let’s give a round of applause to the incredible adults shaping the future of our kids. Whether they’re a coach, neighbour, teacher, mentor, instructor, or someone special, we want to know about them!

Tell us the inspiring story of how your nominee is helping kids grow up great. We will honour the first 100 local nominees for their outstanding contributions to youth development. It’s time to highlight those who consistently go above and beyond!

To nominate, visit Events (sparcreddeer.ca)

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Addictions

‘Harm Reduction’ is killing B.C.’s addicts. There’s got to be a better way

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From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy

By Susan Martinuk 

B.C. recently decriminalized the possession of small amounts of illicit drugs. The resulting explosion of addicts using drugs in public spaces, including parks and playgrounds, recently led the province’s NDP government to attempt to backtrack on this policy

Since 2016, more than 40,000 Canadians have died from opioid drug overdoses — almost as many as died during the Second World War.
Governments, health care professionals and addiction experts all acknowledge that widespread use of opioids has created a public health crisis in Canada. Yet they agree on virtually nothing else about this crisis, including its causes, possible remedies and whether addicts should be regarded as passive victims or accountable moral agents.

Fuelled by the deadly manufactured opioid fentanyl, Canada’s national drug overdose rate stood at 19.3 people per 100,000 in 2022, a shockingly high number when compared to the European Union’s rate of just 1.8. But national statistics hide considerable geographic variation. British Columbia and Alberta together account for only a quarter of Canada’s population yet nearly half of all opioid deaths. B.C.’s 2022 death rate of 45.2/100,000 is more than double the national average, with Alberta close behind at 33.3/100,00.

In response to the drug crisis, Canada’s two western-most provinces have taken markedly divergent approaches, and in doing so have created a natural experiment with national implications.

B.C. has emphasized harm reduction, which seeks to eliminate the damaging effects of illicit drugs without actually removing them from the equation. The strategy focuses on creating access to clean drugs and includes such measures as “safe” injection sites, needle exchange programs, crack-pipe giveaways and even drug-dispensing vending machines. The approach goes so far as to distribute drugs like heroin and cocaine free of charge in the hope addicts will no longer be tempted by potentially tainted street drugs and may eventually seek help.

But safe-supply policies create many unexpected consequences. A National Post investigation found, for example, that government-supplied hydromorphone pills handed out to addicts in Vancouver are often re-sold on the street to other addicts. The sellers then use the money to purchase a street drug that provides a better high — namely, fentanyl.

Doubling down on safe supply, B.C. recently decriminalized the possession of small amounts of illicit drugs. The resulting explosion of addicts using drugs in public spaces, including parks and playgrounds, recently led the province’s NDP government to attempt to backtrack on this policy — though for now that effort has been stymied by the courts.

According to Vancouver city councillor Brian Montague, “The stats tell us that harm reduction isn’t working.” In an interview, he calls decriminalization “a disaster” and proposes a policy shift that recognizes the connection between mental illness and addiction. The province, he says, needs “massive numbers of beds in treatment facilities that deal with both addictions and long-term mental health problems (plus) access to free counselling and housing.”

In fact, Montague’s wish is coming true — one province east, in Alberta. Since the United Conservative Party was elected in 2019, Alberta has been transforming its drug addiction policy away from harm reduction and towards publicly-funded treatment and recovery efforts.

Instead of offering safe-injection sites and free drugs, Alberta is building a network of 10 therapeutic communities across the province where patients can stay for up to a year, receiving therapy and medical treatment and developing skills that will enable them to build a life outside the drug culture. All for free. The province’s first two new recovery centres opened last year in Lethbridge and Red Deer. There are currently over 29,000 addiction treatment spaces in the province.

This treatment-based strategy is in large part the work of Marshall Smith, current chief of staff to Alberta’s premier and a former addict himself, whose life story is a testament to the importance of treatment and recovery.

The sharply contrasting policies of B.C. and Alberta allow a comparison of what works and what doesn’t. A first, tentative report card on this natural experiment was produced last year in a study from Stanford University’s network on addiction policy (SNAP). Noting “a lack of policy innovation in B.C.,” where harm reduction has become the dominant policy approach, the report argues that in fact “Alberta is currently experiencing a reduction in key addiction-related harms.” But it concludes that “Canada overall, and B.C. in particular, is not yet showing the progress that the public and those impacted by drug addiction deserve.”

The report is admittedly an early analysis of these two contrasting approaches. Most of Alberta’s recovery homes are still under construction, and B.C.’s decriminalization policy is only a year old. And since the report was published, opioid death rates have inched higher in both provinces.

Still, the early returns do seem to favour Alberta’s approach. That should be regarded as good news. Society certainly has an obligation to try to help drug users. But that duty must involve more than offering addicts free drugs. Addicted people need treatment so they can kick their potentially deadly habit and go on to live healthy, meaningful lives. Dignity comes from a life of purpose and self-control, not a government-funded fix.

Susan Martinuk is a senior fellow at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy and author of the 2021 book Patients at Risk: Exposing Canada’s Health Care Crisis. A longer version of this article recently appeared at C2CJournal.ca.

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