Addiction recovery home for new moms opening in Greater Victoria [Video]

Come summer’s end, six new moms and their babies will be healing from addiction together in a Greater Victoria home.

The Union Gospel Mission (UGM) is opening Arrow Home, Vancouver Island’s first-ever recovery centre for women with infants.

“Vancouver Island hasn’t always had a ton of long-term, live-in recovery options for women,” said UGM spokesperson Nicole Mucci.

Six women and their babies will live in the home for a year at a time, with 24/7 support from counsellors and case workers.

“When women are experiencing addiction, their ability to seek help — particularly if they have kids — might be a very fraught journey because there is still a lot of stigma; there is still a lot of judgement and there is also fear,” Mucci said.

Men typically make up the majority of people recorded in point-in-time counts, which estimate the number of people experiencing homelessness and addiction in a …