The businesses creating jobs for people in recovery
People in recovery face major barriers to employment. These programs are building jobs that put healing first
By Alexandra Keeler | 5-minute read
David Gillis was just nine years old the first time he got drunk. Raised in bars and strip clubs, he regularly served as a bartender at his parents’ parties. By 16, he was in rehab.
“Alcohol was always the drug that I went to, but opiates were what always brought me to my knees,” he told Canadian Affairs.
It wasn’t until he was in his 40s that Gillis finally broke the cycle of recovery and relapse.
After a stint in rehab, he landed a job at a community centre in Victoria, B.C., where he could be open about his past. There, he launched a job-skills program to help others in recovery transition back into the workforce.
The centre is one of several organizations in B.C. and Alberta that recognize work can be key to people’s recovery journeys — and have created or adapted jobs to support people on that journey.
“[Recovery success] is not just about getting work, it’s about getting the right kind of work with the right culture, with the right mindset,” said Paul Latour, manager of the landscaping business Your Place Victoria, which exclusively employs people in recovery.
“If you go into a bad culture or an environment that’s negative … none of those things are really good for people that are just really trying to anchor in the recovery element in their lives.”
Work works
A 2015 study of people who inject drugs in Vancouver found that employment can help prevent relapse and has a “stabilizing effect.” An earlier, 2010 study in Vancouver found the same.
But people in recovery often face logistical, emotional and physical challenges to rejoining the workforce.
Gaps in work history, a lack of professional references and criminal records can make it difficult to get a job offer.
And those that do can struggle in their new workplaces. Doug Mackenzie, who operates two B.C.-based social enterprises for people in recovery, says trades and restaurant jobs are easy to access, but high-risk.
“Everybody in the trade industry … they’re just used to working hard and drinking and smoking dope,” he said. “In the restaurant industry, a lot of them seem to drink and smoke dope.”
Gillis, who now mentors others in recovery through a Vancouver Island Health Authority program, says kitchens at restaurants and bars can be toxic. The typical work schedule is “anti-social” and alcohol is often close at hand, which can quickly lead to relapse.
Many people in recovery are also managing medication side effects or withdrawal symptoms. This can make workplaces such as kitchens physically overwhelming due to the heat.
Gillis says the physical and mental toll of withdrawal — combined with the effort of staying sober — can also make it hard to absorb new information in a new job.
And trust can be an issue. “Taking direction is difficult sometimes because [people in recovery] have trust issues, and you [as an employer] have to build that trust,” he said.
Options
Edmonton-based Adam Johnston was forced onto a path to recovery after being charged with drug trafficking in 2023.
Facing five years in prison, Johnston — who has struggled with a heroin and fentanyl addiction — was accepted into Alberta’s Drug Treatment Court, a 12- to 24-month program that provides addiction treatment as an alternative to incarceration.
“We get a chance to just change our lives around instead of going to jail,” said Johnston, who is 43.
First launched in 2005, the program is individualized to each participant’s needs, the government’s website says.
“In the initial phases of the program, we aren’t allowed to work,” said Johnston, who entered the program after first spending 15 months in recovery. “They do a lot of work just on you yourself, so we take a bunch of … courses on boundaries, self care — they rehabilitate you from the ground up.”
Johnston recently started job hunting. Although he has not yet heard back from any companies, he is hopeful, due to the program’s strong reputation with employers.
“[P]eople in the program have been able to have employers look at them in a good light because of being in the drug treatment program, rather than just any other person in recovery coming off the street,” he said.
In Victoria, Latour’s landscaping business Your Place Victoria intentionally employs people transitioning out of addiction.
“My job is not to run a landscape company,” he said. “My job is to create an ecosystem of companies that give options for people in recovery.”
Latour designed outdoor, team-based jobs to reduce isolation, and created a gradual path from part-time to full-time work. What matters most, he says, is not the type of work, but whether it takes account of a person’s recovery needs.
“Having a hard day and having [someone] who understands where you’re coming from … to be able to lean on or have that conversation or ask for help is so much easier than any other environment,” he said.
Latour hires based on “strength of recovery,” not credentials. He looks for openness, vulnerability and a willingness to seek help.
Also in B.C., Doug Mackenzie operates two social enterprises — Options Exterior Cleaning in Kelowna and Options Salad and Subs Meal Prep in Duncan — that provide structured, recovery-informed employment. Staff meet weekly with employees to talk through challenges in their work and recovery.
“Now that you’re working, you’ve limited your time, so you might not be able to get to those [addiction] support groups during the day, and you’re too tired at night, so [we] do a weekly check in,” he said.
“That way [we can address anything] before it gets too far.”
Unmasking
In 2023, Levi Timmermans, director of project delivery with BC Transit, helped create a partnership between the public transport agency and New Roads Therapeutic Center to provide people in recovery with meaningful work.
Their first collaboration involved environmental restoration around a new handyDART facility in Victoria — a hub for the door-to-door transit service for people with disabilities. Participants cleared invasive species, landscaped and rebuilt a fish-bearing creek.
Timmermans says any initial apprehensions he and his colleagues may have had disappeared as they got to know the individuals at New Roads and saw the positive impact of their work.
“It almost brought tears to my eyes when I was there, just seeing these people rebuilding their lives and how fragile they are … and you can actually do something productive and build self-esteem in these people.”
Building self-esteem can be critical, since many people in recovery have internalized a sense of shame due to stigma, says Gillis.
“[When you make any mistake, you think] ‘I can’t do this because I’m a f*cking addict’,” Gillis said. “And it’s like, no, you can’t do that because you’re not in an open, welcome environment that’s safe for you to make mistakes and learn.”
Timmermans believes the individuals in New Roads benefitted from teamwork, being connected to nature and being involved in projects with a purpose.
“They were part of something a little bit bigger than themselves,” he said about their work, which included clearing invasive species, landscaping and reconstructing a fish-bearing creek.
“It was pretty special, honestly.”
Individuals from New Roads have continued to be hired for ongoing maintenance work, and have since secured other contracts in the community, says Timmermans. He encourages businesses to collaborate with their communities, including local recovery programs.
“Don’t be fearful,” he says. “Let those relationships create opportunities.”
Gillis says collaboration and transparency needs to go both ways, and establishing real relationships means taking off the mask.
“If you have to go into a world where you can’t talk about the things you’ve been through, I can’t see that working,” said Gillis.
“You’re taking off the mask in recovery because you want to be authentic and real in yourself. If you walk into a world where you have to put a mask back on, you might as well just go use again.”
This article was produced through the Breaking Needles Fellowship Program, which provided a grant to Canadian Affairs, a digital media outlet, to fund journalism exploring addiction and crime in Canada. Articles produced through the Fellowship are co-published by Break The Needle and Canadian Affairs.
If there are any silver bullets to be found as we try to heal those who've been brought to their knees by severe addiction, employment is it- and the obvious place is in the addiction treatment industry. Our 29 y.o. son can no longer access educational opportunities in anything involving humans due to felony convictions related to his addiction, though, so these jobs will need to accommodate those with serious criminal records who want to rebuild. Working is critical.