Monthly Shared Offering: Canaan Development Foundation’s SAFE Houses

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.”

To learn more about these programs, visit CDF’s website, canaandevelopmentfoundation.org.