During their Oct. 9 annual general meeting at the Wawatay Inn, members of Men Are Part of the Solution (MAPS) took stock of their services and programs for 2018.
President Oswald Sawh kicked off the AGM by reaffirming the non-profit’s overriding goal to steer local men away from a lifestyle that leads to addiction and violence.
“For this reason, MAPS, as in the past, advocates for resources for men to provide them with ongoing support systems as destructive learned behaviours may take many years of support to address.”
One of the organization’s most visible programs right now is their Phoenix House facility on Stanford Bay, which has been providing drug- and alcohol-free transitional housing for men since 2013.
While the success rate for the people who enter Phoenix House is very high, Sawh admitted that the occupancy rate still hovers at around an average of 50 per cent from last year, although that number is creeping towards 62 per cent capacity as 2018 comes to a close.
“The challenge is that there are many people on the streets of Thompson who simply are not willing to put forward a commitment to fight their addiction,” Sawh wrote in his president’s report. “MAPS will look at the current occupancy rate to decided on what other options we can look at to utilize the current vacancy rate.”
In terms of their Healthy Relationships counselling service, MAPS program director Michele Nichol said they saw 53 intakes and 12 clients for the year ending last March 31. This represents a slight increase from the previous year’s 46 intakes.
After moving into their new office on Commercial Place in August, MAPS started a closed group program that currently has 14 clients that will be kept on until the end of February 2019.
Nichol also talked about how MAPS strives to provide their clients with access to employment opportunities, since this is a key component of their road to recovery.
“MAPS has found that keeping our clients active is the best way to assist them in keeping up their life of sobriety,” said Nichol. “Conversely, we have found that individuals will relapse if they have nothing to do.”
For more information about MAPS’ various programs and services, please visit their website www.menarepartofthesolution.com.
