Grande Prairie City Council has approved the sale of the property Rising Above Ministries’ addiction treatment centre is currently operating to the organization.
Rising Above Executive Director Mel Siggelkow calls the moment a “big step” for his organization, as the transfer of ownership opens up numerous additional development opportunities on the property.
“It makes it a lot easier for us to work with the bank and go through the legal side of building a building, because now it’s on our property instead of on someone else’s property,” he says. “We’re going to build a new building on the present location, in addition to the building that’s already there.”
The new building is described as a four-story facility that can accommodate up to 38 residents, and Siggelkow says he has high hopes that shovels will be in the ground to begin the new development by “late August.” The project is anticipated to take between 12 and 16 months.
The Executive Director says the new building will increase the ministries’ capacity from 19 men to 38, opening up the current facility to house women in need, who would otherwise be spread across the city in one of the ministries’ four residential houses.
“Right now our ladies are in four residential houses, so we have 17 beds for ladies spread out across Avondale and Royal Oaks, so then those will move into our existing facility which has 19,” he says. “It adds strength to the program, the ladies live off-site, so they feel left out when they need support systems, they have to go to our main campus centre to get it, so this will strengthen the delivery of service to our ladies, and increase our capacity for the men.”
Among the renovations, Rising Above plans on making the old facility more “female friendly,” with bathroom renovations anticipated to take up the bulk of the costs.
