Teen Challenge opening treatment centre near Renfrew

Craig Macartney
Spur Ottawa Writer

Teen Challenge Canada is opening an addictions treatment centre in the Ottawa Valley, and even before launching the centre is already bearing fruit.

“I joined the [London Teen Challenge] choir and we took a trip to the Ottawa Valley to raise awareness for this new centre,” says James Watt. “While on that trip, I came to know the Lord.”

Started in 1958, by David Wilkerson (author of The Cross and The Switchblade) Teen Challenge is a 12-month, in-residence, Christ-centred drug and alcohol addiction treatment program. Watt joined the program three-and-a-half years ago, but he was not interested in God.

“I was at the end of 14 years of drinking and drug use that left me homeless and living on the streets of Ottawa. I was hooked on Fentanyl and smoking crack cocaine.” When he joined the program, Watt says, “I didn’t want to be here and I didn’t want to make changes. I wasn’t looking for God. I was just looking to get sober and have my problems go away.”

Now a program graduate, Watt works for the new “Teen Challenge Eastern Ontario Men’s Centre”. The centre aims to open in the early fall, unless health laws force them to push back the date.

“Teen Challenge believes that Christ is the catalyst for change.” Photo courtesy of Teen Challenge Canada.

Teen Challenge strategically places their centres in the country, to be further from the urban drug scene. This centre, however, located just outside Renfrew, is a particularly beautiful location, says Steve Prendergast who is leads the new centre. The property covers 198 acres, with fields, ponds, and 160 acres of hardwood forest.

“I’ve been to all the other Canadian centres and I think this centre centre is going to be the nicest-looking centre. It’s spectacular what we have here.”

Once fully operational, the facility will house 16 men, plus four program graduates as staff. Because of their Gospel focus, Teen Challenge doesn’t get money from OHIP or other government sources. They rely on donations from churches and believers to sponsor centres and clients.

“Teen Challenge believes that Christ is the catalyst for change,” Prendergast states. “The Bible has all the information we need to have the most joy-filled life we can possibly get. God doesn’t promise us an easy journey, by any means, but He gives us instructions that are still practical today, for anybody, but especially for people in recovery.”

“I have gotten back all the things I thought I lost, and more besides.” James even got back his passion for whitewater guiding. Photo courtesy of James Watt.

Their model involves addiction counseling with certified counselors, group counseling, work therapy, and programming to help clients address underlying issues (like anger and self-esteem). Clients also attend several chapel services per week, teaching from different pastors, and apologetics training to help ground them in the Faith. Yet many clients, like Watt and even Prendergast, initially come as non-believers.

“If you knew me 15 years ago, you’d think I was a hopeless cause,” says Prendergast. “I was an extreme alcoholic and drug addict and I was an atheist. I wanted nothing to do with God, but I needed help. God broke me [at Teen Challenge], so I get it when we say ‘Christ is the catalyst for change.’ I attribute where I am today to all the teaching and counseling I received at Teen Challenge.”

For Watt, being able to help get a Teen Challenge centre running in the Ottawa Valley is particularly special. He spent years enjoying the region’s pristine wilderness and guiding whitewater canoe trips. He hit his lowest point in Ottawa, but it is also where he found Jesus.

“I have a lot of history in the Ottawa Valley. To see a ministry I am passionate about, opening a centre in a place I am so passionate about, it is really cool to be a part of it.”

It is not an easy program. Both Watt and Prendergast say it is the hardest, but most important thing they have ever done.

“I was a person who couldn’t stay sober for more than three hours, let alone the 3.5 years I’m looking at now,” says Watt. “This program helped me find hope, purpose, and a real passion for living that I didn’t have before. I completed addiction counseling training now. I just finished a bachelor of arts in psychology and I’m guiding whitewater on the weekends again. I have gotten back all the things I thought I lost, and more besides.

“There are lots of roads to sobriety, but I think there is only one path to this kind of freedom, and that’s Christ.”