(Photo: The Humanity Project/Facebook)
The Humanity Project is taking another step in helping the homeless.
They’re hoping to raise $500, 000 for a rehabilitation and reintegration retreat.
Founder Charles Burrell says a donation of a farm in Little River, which is around 25 minutes from Moncton.
He says over 160 acre piece of land, came from a couple of generous business owners in our community that decided they wanted to help.
Burrell adds, it means they can provide more services to those in need, and they’ll have a safe place to go outside the city.
“One of the things I see constantly, is people that try to get help with their addiction. They go into a program, short term, for seven to ten days, or maybe a month, and then they’re let back out on the streets to go back to the shelters. We’re setting people up for failure,” Burrell says.
The farm would serve as a retreat, with a program to help overcome addictions.
“When they get over their addiction, if they still want to stay in the program and help out on the farm,” Burrell says. We are going to sit every person down individually and decide what their goals are. But while they are there, they’ll move from the main house, into their own tiny house where they can have a little bit of privacy and dignity.”
Burrell says they’ll also have a garden, to grow fresh fruits and vegetables.
“We are looking at it, by next spring we’ll probably have a few people staying there. Over the winter, we will be doing a lot of work, cleaning it all up and then in the spring we will start with a garden and then maybe next year we’ll add to that. We’ll just keeping building as we go,” Burrell says.
The Humanity Project is hoping to raise $500,000 to help develop the retreat, “We’re going to take it day by day. This whole thing(The Humanity Project) started with a book bag and a pair of socks and it went from that to helping people find housing to feeding people in a parking lot to getting the building that we are in today. We want to build it and take our time so that is is not only successful for the people who are using it, but it’s also successful for the other people who live in that area. “
