Latest news with #50fortheFuture
Winnipeg Free Press
31-05-2025
- Business
- Winnipeg Free Press
A half-century of helping people leave their addictions behind
For 50 years, Tamarack Recovery Centre, a community-based addictions treatment service in Winnipeg, has been quietly and steadfastly offering life-changing wraparound treatment and recovery support. Its mission is to provide a safe, welcoming environment where individuals are supported in recovery to realize their full potential. The vision at the heart of it all: healthy people, free from addiction. BROOK JONES / FREE PRESS Tamarack operations manager Sherry Gable, executive director Lisa Cowan and clinical supervisor Jo Riedle (from left) at the community-based addictions treatment centre on Balmoral Street. 'I no longer wake up feeling empty and dreading the day ahead. Instead, I'm motivated and optimistic,' wrote one former resident. 'I'm more at peace with myself and the world around me. There are certainly some days where old thought patterns and habits creep up, but I'm better equipped to handle those. I'm not having to turn to external things to change the way I feel. I'm able to fall back on the inner strength and supports I've built up along the way.' Recognizing that financial need is often a major barrier to accessing addictions treatment in Manitoba, Tamarack Recovery Centre is hoping a campaign to raise $50,000 for its '50 for the Future' will encourage donors large and small. Earlier this month, the centre received a $30,000 donation from Manitoba's Credit Unions as the first major contribution to Tamarack's new endowment fund. 'This is a proactive investment in our future,' Tamarack executive director Lisa Cowan said, adding the fund will help ensure no one is turned away from the facility's services because they lack the funds. 'Our current data show that more and more people are seeking addictions treatment services. However, we know that not everyone can afford to access the help they need. The agency fund means we can build on and sustain our innovative and responsive participant subsidy program, reducing financial barriers to accessing treatment for future participants. We don't ever want finances to be a barrier.' Over the past five decades of supporting thousands of people in recovery, the program has been meeting participants where they are, providing continuous community-based care. Tamarack's residential treatment program is 60 days in duration. Extended programs are available for people seeking additional time in treatment, and ongoing after-care support is offered to all graduate clients. Cowan, who was formally trained in England as a drama therapist, was always drawn to a helping profession. She set herself up in private practice, worked with women whose lives were impacted by sexual abuse, and later as a counsellor at Tamarack, before ultimately taking on the role of director. 'I very quickly just knew this place was different — so friendly and low-key — a place to be yourself and be real. Instantly I saw that in the staff, many of them in recovery themselves; a healthy perspective, a different degree of honesty. I felt welcome and open to using my skills,' she said. 'I care about this place. I feel really proud of the work we are doing.' The fully accredited Balmoral Street centre has expanded over the years. 'We have a second facility two doors down. I'm truly fortunate with the team I have — that I got to choose — surrounded by people who have been here for 10 to 14 years. Between all of us, and the participants, we adapt the program, and there's not a high level of bureaucracy here. We have a fabulous board of directors, and a completion rate that's really excellent. Every day there is an opportunity to celebrate success in some way. You feel like you're able to be part of something bigger than yourself.' In a profession with a notoriously high burnout rate, Cowan points to a site survey showing the team's surprising longevity. 'It does feel like such a supportive team. Participants help create and open doors; they're supportive of each other, telling me about their day. That's the stuff that fills my bucket.' Between the centre's two homes, the non-profit organization has an average of 23 staff and some student placements throughout the year. 'We really expanded and deepened our after-care program. There's after-care support for life at no charge, with groups twice per week. The majority of our team (staff, graduates and participants) has lived experience with addiction or mental illness. There's support from peers, case management — they can pop in any time. It's a super chill setup family atmosphere. 'We are small, about 12 people in our treatment Centre. In the branch we can have up to 10 of our graduates for up to two years, with supports and engagement but building in more independence, and a return to education.' Wednesdays A weekly look towards a post-pandemic future. Since 2013, Tamarack has an average completion rate of 83 per cent, notably exceeding the industry average of 44 per cent for long-term residential addictions treatment, and graduates report post-treatment sobriety rates well above national norms. 'We've just been operating so quietly — we are a big group of introverts,' Cowan said with a chuckle. 'My way is to work and improve from the inside, not blow my own horn. We stay focused on just doing the work. There's no communications or media relations person. We are not the latest thing in the community. We are quietly going about it. 'I really think sometimes what's missing in the conversation — yes, we have to deal with the crisis, of course there are people hurting — we need to have longevity in mind when we are supporting people, to prevent people from going back. I think it's that connection piece, we have no limit on after-care. We've always managed it. I believe we always will.' To learn more and to support Tamarack, visit or call 204-772-9836. fpcity@
New York Times
31-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Review: A Kronos Quartet Glow Up: New Players, Newly Lustrous Sound
The Kronos Quartet was at Zankel Hall on Friday with a typically eclectic program that included new works drawing on jazz, psychedelic rock and Nordic folk music. The vibrant performance was not only the ensemble's return to a space it reliably fills with devoted fans; with the quartet's ranks refreshed by three brilliant new players, it also felt like a comeback. In recent years, the aging ensemble — founded in 1973 by David Harrington, who continues to lead it as first violin — sometimes seemed to have had slid into an identity crisis. The Kronos brand was still strong: Ambitious commissions kept pushing the boundaries of quartet music, resulting in more than 1,000 new works and arrangements drawing on every imaginable style. In the run-up to its golden jubilee, the ensemble initiated a commissioning project, 50 for the Future, and made the sheet music to all 50 pieces available free online. But the quality of the playing had become inconsistent. And the spoken introductions the players offered at concerts felt perfunctory and tired. When the violinists John Sherba and Hank Dutt, who had been in the lineup since 1978, retired last year, the quartet might have disbanded. Instead, Harrington brought in fresh talent and — judging by the music-making on Friday — strong personalities. The quartet's middle voices now belong to the violinist Gabriela Díaz and the violist Ayane Kozasa, who join the composer and cellist Paul Wiancko, who came onboard in 2022. During the kaleidoscopic first half of the concert the two women asserted themselves as the quartet's engines of emotional intensity and a newly lustrous, rich sound. This came through most powerfully in Aleksandra Vrebalov's incantatory 'Gold Came From Space,' which gradually grows in sonic density and expressive intent of tremulous whispers. Time and again, Kozasa's viola stole the spotlight with its absorbing mixture of lyricism and throaty candor. She channeled Nina Simone's tough-nosed tenderness in Jacob Garchik's arrangement of 'For All We Know' (composed by J. Fred Coots) and set the tone for Wiancko's arrangement of Neil Young's protest song 'Ohio.' Two songs by Sun Ra, 'Outer Spaceways Incorporated' (wittily arranged by Garchik) and 'Kiss Yo' Ass Goodbye,' in a psychedelic arrangement by Terry Riley and Sara Miyamoto, sparkled with experimental glee. That exploratory zest had always been a hallmark of Kronos. But the heart-on-sleeve directness the group brought to Viet Cuong's stirring 'Next Week's Trees,' in which the quartet sometimes sounds like a giant harp, felt new. The second half was taken up by a single work, 'Elja,' by Benedicte Maurseth and Kristine Tjogersen. Maurseth, who joined the Kronos players for the performance, is a master on the Norwegian hardanger fiddle, a violin-like instrument with four extra resonating strings and a curved neck and carved scroll that evokes the bow of an ancient ship. For the 45-minute piece, which also featured recorded nature sounds, the Kronos players switched to hardanger versions of their own instruments. (The viola and cello fiddles were specially built for Kronos by the Norwegian luthier Ottar Kasa.) Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? Log in. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
