Mental Health Canada Project #29198

Fresh Start Addiction Treatment Program

by Fresh Start Recovery Centre

Project Report | Mar 19, 2020
Your gift has created awareness that saves lives

By Wayne Steer | Director of Fund Development

Global Giving Staff Favorite

You have been an important part of Fresh Start's success with GlobalGiving!

Thank you for your support of Fresh Start Recovery Centre through your donation on GlobalGiving to "Your Gift Delivers GratefulRecovery to 18 Men" . Your participation has helped Fresh Start become better known, not only in Canada but throughout the world for transforming and saving lives.

You might be interested in seeing a note that Fresh Start recently received from a first-time donor through GlobalGiving. We would like to share this note with you, inform you of a positive GlobalGiving development in 2019 and share with you how you can greatly leverage and influence a matching opportunity that GlobalGiving is launching next week.

First the note:

Heather C. recently wrote …

“A few years ago, I suggested to my adult children that instead of giving each other Christmas gifts, we would make a donation to a favourite charity. And so, we have done that ever since.

This Christmas my beautiful daughter gave me a gift card to GlobalGiving, where I could choose a charity of my choice. And so, I have chosen you. It is just a small donation, but I hope that every little bit helps.

And so, I do this in remembrance of my daughter's friend, who passed away a few years ago of a drug overdose. He thought he could manage his addiction, but he couldn't. He was 33. And I do this in memory of my dear friend Aline's grandson, who died last year of a drug overdose; his father found him. He was 27. And I do this in the very special memory of Ruth, an inspiration, who even as an elder in her 80s continued to get up every Monday morning to volunteer with her church to help cleanup the rooms where homeless people came “Inn From The Cold”, in Calgary.

And I do this for all my family and friends in Calgary, and all streets and parks and places I know so well, and love.

And finally, I do this in memory of Jim, who many years ago when I was younger and starting out in my life, stood up one evening at a Camera Club meeting and said, “I want to thank you all for this great meeting and sharing your stories through photos. As for me, I am going out with my family tonight to celebrate, we are celebrating my birthday. Forget when I was born; this is my real birthday. There have been hard times. But tonight, I have been sober for 20 years. And I will share this with family, and with you, my friends. Tonight, I have been sober for 20 years!”

And so, this is for Jim, who so many years ago taught me the power of redemption.

And as the winds blow here and rains fall tonight, I say to you...

Never give up. Jim could do it. You can too.

Heather C.
Vancouver Island”

While Heather is originally from Calgary, it took a GlobalGiving Gift Card from her daughter for her to become aware of Fresh Start’s presence on GlobalGiving and to donate. Heather's daughter definitely found Fresh Start on GlobalGiving and knew the impact that a gift card could make.

A special nod from the staff at GlobalGiving in 2019

Others have found Fresh Start’s profile because you have shared this good news with them.

One “gift” that helped give us a boost in 2019 was came from the GlobalGiving staff who chose Fresh Start as their “Staff Favorite” last year, which ended up raising our profile even more.

Little by little, each act of kindness helps raise greater awareness, more funds and allows us to help more men and their families work to achieve a fulfilling life, free from drugs and alcohol.

Your opportunity to create great leverage

Speaking of little by little, GlobalGiving is launching a campaign next week between 7:00 am MDT Monday, March 23^rd and 10:00 pm MDT on Friday, March 27^th. called “littlexlittle”. This campaign leverages the gifts of people who donate up to $70 Canadian ($50 US) with a match of 0.50¢ for every dollar ($1.00) donated.

Your donation has great power to make a difference. By sharing the fact that you donated, it will inspire others to join you and has the potential for exponential impact. GlobalGiving has stated that matching funds "will not run out".

With this generous GlobalGiving match, each donation of $50 US ($70 Canadian) to Fresh Start by a "unique donor" (a series of $50 US gifts from you will not qualify beyond your first gift) from March 23^rd to March 27^th, would mean approximately $105 Canadian for Fresh Start in total after the match ... now that’s some really powerful leverage.

If you share with others on social media and they are inspired to join you, who knows what this could lead to.

Fresh Start is very grateful for your past support and would like to thank you for considering getting behind this new campaign, sharing the news with others and creating some incredible leverage and magic. I am sure that it will generate some more inspiring letters like Heather's.

"Littlexlittle", you and those you inspire have the power to make a huge difference knowing that "Your Gift Delivers GratefulRecovery to 18 Men" .

Thanks for all of your support in so many ways; your support truly does save lives!

Little by Little

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Jan 16, 2020
Your Gift Counters Dropping Life Expectancy

By Wayne Steer | Director of Fund Development

Addiction Impacts Life Expectancy of Millenials

You have been an outstanding supporter of Fresh Start and we want to let you know just how important your support is, not only to us, but more importantly to those we serve.

Your help has made it possible for Fresh Start to continue to deliver national, award-winning treatment to individuals and families affected by the disease of addiction and in dire need of understanding, help and recovery solutions.

We thought you would find the following to be interesting and help to put some perspective on just how the disease of addiction is impacting our society and how your support is truly making a difference.

Dr. Peter Attia wrote in his weekly blog on December 29^th, 2019 entitled “Why is life expectancy in the US declining? Midlife mortality and mental health” that “According to a new study in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association), life expectancy (LE) at birth stopped increasing since 2010 and actually decreased in the US for three consecutive years. To put this in perspective, the last time we saw three consecutive years of declining LE was 100 years ago, coinciding with the flu epidemic of 1918.”

He goes on to say that “Perhaps surprisingly, increased mortality rates in midlife—defined rather broadly as 25-64 years old—are driving the stall, and eventual decline, in LE. Within this group, the largest increases in mortality rate occurred in the subset of people aged 25-34, and it was the increase in drug overdoses, suicides, and alcohol-related diseases that were identified as three key causes of death in this group.… This triad is referred to as “deaths of despair” by one research group.” Click to read more https://peterattiamd.com/why-is-life-expectancy-in-the-us-declining/

This trend is not unique to the United States and is closely mirrored in Canada – particularly in British Columbia and Alberta.

Statistics Canada reports that “… young adults in Canada were dying at a higher rate in 2017 than in 2016. This was especially noticeable among Canadian men aged 20 to 44 years.” The paper goes on to explain that “… the drug overdose crisis occurring in Canada was a major contributing factor in the changes seen in life expectancy from 2016 to 2017, especially for men.

In 2017, out of 4,108 drug overdose deaths in Canada, 571 (13.9%) occurred among people aged 30 to 34 years old and 525 (12.8%) occurred among people 35 to 39 years old.” https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/190530/dq190530d-eng.htm

From what we know of the increased deaths in Alberta and BC over 2018 and 2019, we believe that the problem is just as serious in Western Canada as it is in the United States … if not, perhaps worse.

Your support helped Fresh Start create positive impact for people in some of these most vulnerable age groups in 2019. This past year, 83.4% of the 1,071 people who turned to us for help were 44 years of age or younger. Of those that we were able to provide addiction treatment services to, 21.9% were in the 30-34 age group and 14.8% were in the 35-39-year-old age bracket. Participants in this age bracket exhibited a combined completion rate of 56.9%.

You might also be pleased to know that your support helped 97 men and women who turned to us to get help through Fresh Start’s Family Healing Program so that they could better cope with someone in their family or circle of friends who needed recovery services for their addiction.

The impact of your support is great! For every one person we are able to help directly, 25 other family members, friends, neighbors and members of community find some degree of relief from the disease of addiction.

Thank you for your support, the impact you are making and the role you play in keeping people alive.

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Oct 17, 2019
Share with others the Impact You have made - this sort of news shouldn't be kept Secret

By Wayne Steer | Director of Fund Development

Canadian Top 100 Charity

The best way to tell a story about how well we do what we do is to let someone else tell the story. For the past thirteen years, Charity Intelligence Canada has been telling the stories of how your support has been helping Fresh Start be recognized as being among the leaders in fiscal responsibility, social impact and overall excellence in delivering mission focused work that helps house, treat and support people affected by addiction.

"Charity Intelligence’s Top Rated 100 Charities is a list of outstanding charities you can support with confidence this giving season. This list has the 100 charities with the highest point totals based on our rating methodology on 750 charities.

These Top Rated 100 Charities:

are leaders in reporting to donors, a good sign of accountability
are cost efficient with overhead spending averaging 20%, compared to an average of 26% for all charities we analyse
need support - none have more than three years of funding reserves,
are financially transparent

Fresh Start is the only agency on Charity Intelligence Canada's Top 100 List that is in the business of Addiction Recovery, it is one of the Top 10 Impact Charities in Canada (for the fifth consecutive year) on the list and is one of only three Charities that is rated "1" or High for impact of the Top 10."

You have exercised the power to create some amazing changes through your gifts. Consider continuing to create great change and be sure to tell your family and friends about the difference you are making and invite them to join you.

Fresh Start is grateful for the difference that you make.

Charity Intelligence Four Star Rating Criterion

Links:

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