Click here to read this story and additional articles in the Fall 2023 Good Shepherd Journal

In June 2021, I got third-degree burns when my apartment in Quebec City burned down. I was homeless after the fire. I started living with my aunt.

I am an alcoholic. My alcoholism got worse and worse as I tried to escape from the trauma of the fire. My aunt kicked me out.

I came to Toronto and became homeless in Toronto. I ran out of money. I was on the streets, shaking from withdrawal, so I called a detox centre. The detox found Good Shepherd’s DARE Program for me. I got in here and that’s how I survived.

After my first 30 days here, I relapsed. I got my cheque and I went out and drank.

I was trying to prove I wasn’t “one of them.” I said to myself, I will just have a couple drinks. And then I tried everything in me to stop and I just couldn’t stop. I just watched myself drinking and I said to myself, “Man, you are messed up as hell.”

That’s when I surrendered. I just admitted complete defeat. I got back into DARE and I stopped trying to get out of my addiction on my own. I started taking direction and suggestions. I did everything the counsellors said to do.

The DARE Program gave me structure and it gave me safe refuge. When you’re on the streets and you don’t know where you are going to sleep, there’s a lot of fear.

Waking up in the morning, doing chores, it gave me purpose again. It taught me how to live again. As an alcoholic, there no morning, no night, no breakfast time, no lunch, no dinner, no accountability, no chores. There’s just waking up, drinking, passing out, waking up and drinking again.

DARE gave me the tools to go on with my life and face my addiction.  The DARE counsellors are good listeners, they’re capable of empathy, of putting themselves in our shoes.

I’m responsible, I’m accountable for my actions and what I’m saying. I accept life on life’s terms. I stopped acting like I was victim of everything. That’s the tools I learned in the DARE Program.

DARE was a lifeline for me because I was drowning. I had a good childhood; I don’t know why I became an alcoholic. I just couldn’t stop drinking.

I used to wake up in the morning wishing I was dead or wishing to never wake up again, just go back to sleep.

Now, I wake up in the morning and I just can’t get enough of it! I have people who care about me again. I reunited with my family – before, they were not speaking to me.

It’s like my internal light was off – or maybe it just had a lot of dust on it. This place removed all the dust and now I feel capable to face the world.

Guys like me – without a place like this – I probably wouldn’t be here today. I would be still drinking or even worse. Now, I feel like I have something to offer. I feel like a valuable member of society again.

A place like DARE – it doesn’t work for everyone. But for me, it made all the difference!