Our Shared
Offering for October will support the Men’s SAFE House and the Women’s SAFE House
in Champaign-Urbana. “SAFE” stands for Substance
Abuse Free Environment. Each
provides a 12-month program of residential care for men or women with alcohol
or drug addictions, as well as drop-in support. The Men’s SAFE House opened in
1994, the Women’s in 2012.
Both were created and are
administered by the Canaan Development Foundation (CDF), a community-supported
non-profit founded by Canaan Baptist Church.
The mission statement for the Men’s SAFE House is: “To
provide positive alternatives for those who seek to escape the pressures of
areas with high drug activity.” For the Women’s SAFE House, it is: “To combat
the incidence and impact of drugs and alcohol abuse among women; to empower
these women to make informed choices about their future and the future of their
dependent children.”
Each of the SAFE House programs provides extensive support
for residents – overnight accommodations; breakfast, lunch and dinner; and
classes in substance abuse, family life skills, violence prevention, as well as
communications skills The Women’s SAFE House also provides residential care for
residents’ dependent children.
The importance of these SAFE houses to us all is clear. The
CDF website puts it succinctly.
What costs over $700
million and provides no value to the purchasers? That’s the yearly cost to feed,
clothe, and house incarcerated men and women in Illinois, not including the
economic value that prisoners could have contributed to society’s wellbeing!
How do so many capable
individuals end up behind bars? To be sure, poor personal choices, coupled with the social
ills of poverty, violence, abuse, and neglect, have contributed to the plight
of prisoners, but only drug abuse characterizes all incarcerated populations.
Drug abuse is an equal opportunity drain on our society’s wellbeing. Nearly 75%
of all White, as well as Black, and over 60% of Hispanic prisoners admit to
regular drug use prior to incarceration.
It’s simple – Less
substance abuse, less prisoners. Today’s global economy requires every individual to be a
contributing member of society. We don’t have a single person to waste! In
other words – CDF promotes “the inherent worth and dignity of every person.”
