Transformed motel to serve new purpose

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This article was published 29/06/2023 (814 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Under new ownership, the Redwood Motor Inn now has new purpose as it’s being transformed into a facility designed to help women who have undergone addiction treatment to reunite with their children and prepare to live independently.

The motel, which is currently undergoing renovations, and now dubbed the Aurora Family Reunification Home, is affiliated with the Aurora Recovery Centre, a private addiction recovery centre in Gimli.

The Brandon facility will house people who have already completed treatment or detox and assist them with reconnecting with their children and transitioning to living on their own, which helps to fill the gap in resources for long-term recovery from substance use, facility administrators say.

“A lot of [people in recovery] don’t have the support for long-term change,” Chantel Klainchar, the Aurora Family Reunification Home’s program director, told the Sun. “That’s why this program is so beneficial, because they’re able to stay as long as they need [and] they can be supported in resolving some of the challenges in their lives that may have kept them using substances, like unemployment, inadequate housing, family breakdown, trauma.”

The motel-turned-transitional-housing-facility will focus on community and offer traditional Indigenous healing practices like sweats, sharing circles, smudging, drumming and singing. Opportunities for education, as well as employment development and preparation, and parenting programs are offered by the home.

“We offer clients support and the necessary tools to build a new life for themselves and their families in recovery,” Klainchar said.

Program participants are expected to stay for about a year, although that could vary by an individual’s need and the time that it takes to help them find employment and housing, Klainchar added.

While the facility in Gimli does offer longer-term housing after addiction treatment, the new facility in Brandon is a next step, helping participants to gain the skills they need to live on their own, while having access to support for having their children returned to them.

Each family is assigned to their own private room, which varies in size depending on the number of family members. The facility has a kitchen and on-site laundry facilities so that participants can live independently.

Currently, the motel is undergoing cosmetic work, including filling in the pool to create a multi-purpose common area.

The president of Aurora Recovery Centre, Michael Bruneau, told the Sun that the Brandon facility has accepted a couple who had completed the treatment program in Gimli and gave birth to twins about a week ago. A facility like the one in Brandon allows the family to stay together he said.

The mother of the twins, Rachel Goertzen, who is originally from Winnipeg, told the Sun that she went to Aurora in Gimli for an addiction to crystal meth. She said her other children were apprehended by Child and Family Services after about two years into her meth addiction.

“I lost myself in my addiction,” she said.

Goertzen said that she was at Aurora for about a month before she went into a hospital to deliver her twins.

She said that she was surprised to find out from her CFS worker that her newborn twins could stay with her and her partner by coming to the facility in Brandon.

“I was so happy when I found out because I thought I was going to be signing them over to CFS,” she said.

Goertzen said that she enjoys the routine at the facility in Brandon and hopes to work toward being reunited with her other children.

“I feel like I’m actually getting somewhere,” she said, adding that she plans to go back to college or university in the future.

Klainchar said the home has a CFS liaison caseworker who helps participants navigate the system and helps them to understand what is required of them to get their children back.

Mark Shepit, the facility’s wellness director, worked at the Gimli facility previously and told the Sun that physical activity is the most underrated aspect of recovery.

He said the program at the facility in Brandon will focus on individualized routines for wellness techniques that work for each participant.

Shepit said that while the facility’s fitness area is still being built, he has taken participants on walks, and had them do indoor yoga and Pilates.

“These are long-term coping tools and also wellness tools for long term recovery because it’s not a matter of getting sober — anybody can get sober. It’s a matter of staying sober.”

Aurora Recovery Centre has applied for a zoning variance that requires a public hearing. A hearing has been scheduled for July 5 in council chambers at city hall.

» gmortfield@brandonsun.com