Since the inception of Barka Canada in 2013, we have gathered significant knowledge and experience in dealing with problems that lead to social and economic exclusion, including addictions, homelessness, and chronic unemployment (see What We do and Our Impact).
We are ready now to create more advanced, comprehensive programs and to help more people. Our focus is to strengthen both early intervention (or prevention) as well as long-term recovery, to ensure long-lasting change, skills, and social integration. This will benefit individuals, who gain their lives back, and communities, which gain valuable members and reduce their heartache and costs.
We are thus working on and seeking funding to develop and run the following projects:
Outreach Program
The purpose of our Outreach Program will be to make contact with people who are suffering from addiction, homeless or at risk of homelessness, and to encourage them to use our services and the services of other agencies to find housing, get addiction or mental health help, and get assistance with other problems that may be contributing to their lack of stable housing or employment. Our model of service delivery will be based on Barka UK, where teams of two people go out into the community where people who are homeless have been known to be. They would approach and offer support and services, but they would not push anyone into accepting help. Each team will consist of a Leader, who is a person who has struggled with addiction themselves, has gone into recovery, and has been stable in their sobriety for a set period of time, and a person with a social work or similar degree, who will be there to offer professional guidance and support as needed.
Handyman Division Social Enterprise
The Handyman Division social enterprise will provide an opportunity for people to get back into the workforce. The employees, including managers, will be people recovering from addiction and/or mental health issues, or those struggling to find a stable job. The work will involve physical labor and include pre-construction or pre-renovation preparation work, post-construction cleanup, small demolition jobs, junk removal, landscaping, and general yard work. The enterprise will offer accommodated employment, with basic job training, supervision, and workload tailored to what each employee can fully and responsibly do at a given stage of their recovery (subject to the availability of work). At the same time, the enterprise will provide structure, enforce sobriety, hold each employee accountable for their work, and foster good work habits. Barka Canada, as a non-profit society, will be the owner of the enterprise. Any extra income generated, after paying business expenses and employee wages, will be used to fund our programs.
Recovery House
This will be a residence for men recovering from addiction. The criteria for entry into the house will be a set period of sobriety/abstinence from the use of substance. We will offer a clean, safe environment with strict policies against substance use. Since an important part of the recovery process is learning/re-learning/maintaining life skills, we will require the residents to participate in the upkeep of the house, including cleaning, cooking, laundry, etc. We would like to have a residence for up to six men.
Recovery Farm
Barka would like to run and operate a farm where people who are in recovery would have the opportunity to live and at the same time learn farming skills and obtain accommodated employment. The residents will be people recovering from addiction, both men and women. The requirement for entry will be a set period of sobriety. There will be strict rules against substance use. Our farming activities will include cultivation of various crops, including organic vegetables and fruit. Away from the city’s hustle and bustle, the farm will provide a slower pace and more personal environment, with less stress yet plenty of hard work, close to nature. In time, the farm should become financially self-sufficient, and eventually able to generate extra income that could be used towards other projects at Barka Canada.