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Our History

Crossroads Centre is a non-profit corporation, and registered charity, funded by the Ministry of Health - Long Term Care.  We are governed by a volunteer Board of Directors comprised of up to 7 members.

 

Described as a recovery home (formerly known as “halfway housing”), Crossroads Centre is a 40 bed residential program that provides addiction recovery support to men and women over the age of 18.  We offer both pre- and post-treatment services.  Pre-treatment stabilization provides support to clients who are waiting to attend treatment, and either do not or cannot return to their previous living situation due to risk of falling back into former patterns of substance abuse.  Post-treatment services are longer-term for individuals who have completed a residential treatment program within the last year. 

 

We offer individual support and group programming.  Groups currently offered include  Relapse Prevention, Life Skills, Stress Management, Yoga, Thought Distortions, Coffee Club/Book Club, Recreation, Step Skills, recreation and Pre-treatment discussion group.  Our services are firmly grounded in the self-help philosophy of 12 Step Programs, primarily Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous, with group attendance being mandatory for clients.

 

Crossroads was formed in 1965, out of a need seen by members of the local alcohol recovery community, spearheaded by the Director of the Addiction Research Foundation at that time, Murray Slator.  Starting as a home with ten beds for male clients, Crossroads Centre relied entirely on clients paying a fee to live there.  Often major local employers, such as CN and CP Railways, paper mills and the City of Thunder Bay would finance their employees’ stay, as an investment in retaining valued staff.  However, this reliance on user fees did restrict admission to those clients who had the means to pay, and effectively denied access to an entire population with lower economic status.

 

In 1971, relocation to a different building permitted the addition of ten more beds.  Two years later, ten beds for female clients were added, which remained entirely funded by fee-payers until 1984.  By 1981, Crossroads had two, ten-bed homes for women, as well as the large twenty-bed residence for men. 

 

The agency occupied five houses until ownership of the property changed.  The need for a new and more modern residence was identified and work to begin securing a new site that would meet the needs of individuals in recovery and the future growth of the program.  Funding for the capital project was provided by the Ministry and the capital project began.  In November 2017 Crossroad Centre moved into the new site at 500 Oliver Road.

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