Ten years of giving hope to Ottawa’s helpless

By Kenyon Wallace

Heroin, cocaine, crack, speed, acid, angel dust, ecstasy, marijuana.

Name it and Patrick McGrath has done it.

The 39-year-old recovering drug addict and alcoholic sits in the lunch room of the Bronson Centre, excited by the news of his recent parole board pardon.

“I’m a free man now,” says the wiry, energetic McGrath. “It’s taken me a long time to stay out of trouble. There were so many times when I was so close to getting a pardon, and then the night before I’d go out drinking and get in a fight.”

McGrath speaks quickly, his heavily-tattooed arms gesturing excitedly. His red hair and youthful face belie years of drug and alcohol abuse.

“If it wasn’t for the Good Day Workshop, I would’ve ended up in a bad place,” he says.

McGrath is one of many recovering drug addicts and alcoholics who have found a family at the Good Day Workshop, a non-profit organization, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary. It helps individuals with addictions, disabilities and mental illnesses regain their health and employability.

The organization offers participants the opportunity to repair and refinish commissioned, donated, and found furniture. It rents four rooms from the Bronson Centre and trains participants to be either upholsterers or woodworkers. One room, known as the “parlour,” is where participants are taught how to re-upholster furniture. Another is a fully functional woodworking shop.

Participants in the program do everything involved in an upholstery business. From dealing with customers, providing quotes, to seeing the restoration through, the participants are solely responsible for making sure the process runs smoothly and professionally. On any given day, the Good Day Workshop sees up to 40 full-time participants, all men.

Liz Gauthier, director of Good Day Workshops Inc., says the program gives its participants a sense of belonging and family while giving them skills they can use in the workplace.

“This is more than a basic needs program for the poor,” says Gauthier.

“Each of us has to feel that we are wanted, needed, useful, that we can create work, be a part of a community. This program offers that to all of our participants. Where else would they ever get this kind of experience?”

McGrath arrives for work every morning at 8:20 a.m. and “not a second later,” he says. He shares an apartment downtown with a friend and works in the finishing department where he varnishes everything from kitchen tables to 100-year-old rocking chairs. Furniture is stripped, repaired or rebuilt before being sent to McGrath for the final touches.

“This place gives me a sense of purpose,” McGrath says with a smile. “I can now get up in the morning and have somewhere to go instead of getting up and heading to the beer store to get drunk.”

McGrath was raised in Toronto and moved to Ottawa 21 years ago. The second oldest of seven children, McGrath trained in culinary school before becoming one of Ottawa’s youngest chefs at age 21, he says.

But his penchant for drugs got the better of him, and before long, McGrath turned to stealing and breaking into houses to fund his heroin and cocaine addictions.

After numerous drug-related and assault convictions, McGrath got a job as a cleaner at a downtown drop-in centre. But after being laid off last year, he panicked and became desperate to find something that would keep him from turning back to drugs and alcohol.

“Lucky for me, a friend told me about the Good Day Workshop,” says McGrath with a sigh. “And I’ve been here for over a year now.”

Today, there is an air of excitement at the workshop. Everyone is talking about the 10th anniversary of the Good Day Workshop and the party celebrating the event. An unnamed donor has bought everyone suits for the event.

Kate McCloskey, co-ordinator of media relations for United Way Ottawa, said in a telephone interview she applauds the Good Day Workshop for “reaching the 10-year mark and we wish them many more.”

The Good Day Workshop received funding from the United Way three years ago.

Participants in the Good Day Workshop are not paid, but they do receive lunch, job training and an honourarium.

But more important, says McGrath, is the sense of community participants get from the program.

“This is a family. We support each other. I might not make much money, but it’s totally satisfying.” he says.