Christmas will be coming a little earlier this year for a halfway house for recovering addicts in West Bay, courtesy of a timely donation by the Ministry of Community Affairs, Youth and Sports.

The much-needed $10,000 contribution was given by Minister Osbourne Bodden to the Hope for Today Foundation, which is a local charity that runs a men’s rehabilitation residential home. With capacity to house and treat 10 men, the donation will assist with the operating costs of the facility, which currently has eight residents referred there by the Drug Rehabilitation Court and other entities focusing on rehabilitation.

Established five years ago to address a pressing need for such a service, how long the facility continues to provide this life-saving service depends largely on ongoing support from outside agencies and contributions from the private sector.

Speaking of the donation, Minister Bodden said, “The rehabilitation of substance abusers is something that profoundly impacts the community and individuals.  Assisting entities like the Hope For Today Foundation is something that is essential for us to do as a forward-thing society and fits neatly into the mandate of my Ministry, under the Counseling and Rehabilitative services we offer through our own facilities.”

The facility’s Operations Manager, Brent Hydes said, “The Ministry’s kind donation has come at a critical stage in the future development of the halfway house. We are heavily reliant on outside support. I want to thank Mr. Bodden for recognising the benefits of this programme. The money will go towards rent, utilities, the staff needed to run our six to eight month programme; and a small stipend for gasoline.”

“We offer a much-needed solution to the problem of recidivism” he said, adding that “The programme pays for itself in terms of the reduction in crime in the country.”

According to Mr. Hydes, himself a former addict, the success of the facility’s 12-step programme is due to its meetings, counselling and informal fellowship. It allows residents to work through the issues surrounding their addiction and reflect on the negative and long-lasting impact that the crimes used to fuel their habit causes to their own community, to families and to themselves.

“Cayman is such a small place, try as you might you are always going to have some connection with your old locales, friends and the temptations those bring.”

Where the halfway house really helped, he felt, was in accepting the totality of every individual’s life experiences and in offering realistic solutions to combatting the disease of addiction.

“If you practice something long enough it becomes a habit. People are a product of their environment and healthy habits can be learned in time,” the operations manager added. He notes that the programme does not offer a cure-all but rather a way of living and dealing with deep-seated personal crises that bring about a cycle of chaos and destruction.

“We are nothing if not realists here. Our hope is that residents come out of the programme and stay clean. Our recidivism rate is below average. Over the last 18 months of the purchase agreement with government we’ve had 26 men pass through our doors. Of those, 16 have completed the programme and not returned to substance abuse.”

To learn more about Hope For Today, visit www.caymanhopefoundation.com. Donations can be made either online via Butterfield Bank (Hope for Today Foundation, Halfway House Bridge Program) or by mailing a cheque to PO Box 1 Hell, Grand Cayman KY1-1401.

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Ministers Osbourne Bodden, supported by West Bay MLA and Minister for Education, Employment and Gender Affairs, Minister Tara Rivers, handed over a $10,000 cheque to meet the daily running costs of the Hope For Today Foundation’s men’s Halfway House to one of the non-profit’s board members, Christopher Burke.