For many, choosing to pursue higher education is about more than academics, it’s a step toward a brighter future. But for individuals living with addiction or in recovery, the idea of stepping onto a post-secondary campus can come with uncertainty: Will I find support? Will I be safe? Will I be accepted?
At Lethbridge Polytechnic, those questions are being met with compassion, support and lived experience, in part thanks to Christian Morin, a student who knows firsthand just how difficult the road to sobriety – and walking the path of recovery – can be.
After years of battling addiction, he now leads Donuts and Discussions, a weekly peer support group on campus that offers a safe, judgement-free space for students to connect and share.
“I love it,” he says. “Before [I was sober], it was a lot more self-seeking, more selfish; I kind of didn’t really care about anybody else except myself. So now it’s getting to pass that on. I think that’s what recovery is all about.”
The group is just one piece of a growing recovery informed culture at the polytechnic that includes harm reduction resources, counselling, alcohol-free housing options, wellness referrals and provincial grant-funded programming aimed at making the campus more inclusive for students in or seeking recovery.
“We take this seriously,” says Lori Harasem, Wellness Services health promotion co-ordinator. “We want to be there for every student.”
According to the 2024 Canadian Campus Wellbeing Survey, six per cent of student respondents self-identified as being in recovery from substances, alcohol and/or behavioural addictions. An additional four per cent of survey respondents said they weren’t sure and two per cent preferred not to answer.
Faced with those statistics and looking for additional ways to support students, the polytechnic joined Recovery on Campus Alberta – a relatively new organization founded by the University of Calgary – in 2022. Today, representatives from 26 post-secondary institutions take part in monthly virtual meetings to discuss addiction and recovery on their campuses – what they’re trying, what’s working and what’s not working.
“We didn’t actually have any kind of peer support or group support for recovery and addiction on our campus,” says Harasem. “And the U of C’s Donuts and Discussions group was really catching on. I asked if I could steal the concept and [Recovery on Campus Alberta] actually decided a couple of years ago that every campus in the province could steal it.”
Harasem says she liked the idea of Donuts and Discussions because it sounded very low key, fun and inviting. And while Recovery on Campus Alberta had provided the idea and promotional text and graphics, Harasem was on the hook for recruiting a polytechnic student living in recovery who could commit to leading the weekly discussions.
Recognizing it had to be “the right individual,” Harasem says she put feelers out around campus. It wasn’t long before a colleague approached her and said, “I think I found your person.”
“Right away, Christian was 100 per cent on board,” Harasem recalls. “He saw the importance of the work, and he was willing to sort of be the face of it because there are some people who want to support others, but they don’t want people to know that they’re in recovery.”
Morin, though, speaks openly about his journey from addiction to sobriety, which he says began in Grade 10. “I was smoking a lot of weed. I knew it was a little bit out of control because I didn’t want to stop ever. I liked the haze.”
Social drinking followed and at 19 years old, Morin was pulled over for suspected drunk driving and charged with refusal (to comply with a demand for a breath sample).
“I ended up having to get a lawyer … it cost me a lot of money, and I never got off,” he says. “I ended up losing my license for a year and getting a criminal charge from it, plus my family kind of pushed me away a little bit.”
After that, Morin says he decided to “do things on his own,” dropping out of Mount Royal University to go work on the rigs.
“You can find yourself on a good rig, and it’s all good,” he says, “but you could also be stuck in that lifestyle all of a sudden and it can trigger that addiction – you’re coping, you’re away from family, you’re away from home, you’re with a bunch of people you don’t really want to be with … and from there I ended up what would definitely be considered an alcoholic.”
Morin says by the time he was 26, work on the rigs had slowed and he was laid off. He got another job and started using more heavily – not just alcohol but cocaine as well.
“I burnt my life to the ground,” he admits. “I lost a lot of friends, I wasn’t seeing my family as much, school wasn’t even an option anymore because I thought I was already getting too old for that.”
And then came children – two daughters.
“You’d think that would be enough to turn your life around,” Morin says. “For me, it was a time to cope with hard feelings of having to be responsible, having to be accountable for my kids and the mother of my children, and really I had no clue that there were options for me to detox, to get help.”
Despite feeling “a lot of guilt and shame,” Morin says he kept using over the next 10 years.
“When I was 36, my mom was catching on to how bad I was,” he says. “My dad had died; I had a friend commit suicide who was hard into crack cocaine, and I ended up dabbling with that, too. Then from there it didn’t take long for me to lose all my savings. The mother of my children was kicking me out. I decided to go to detox, finally. And I can’t say that it was necessarily my decision either, lots of people get pushed into it and that’s OK, it’s a start.”
Morin spent five days at Renfrew Recovery Centre in Calgary, an inpatient facility that provides medically supported detoxification services.
“I was sick for the first few days, and then finally they get you to talk to a counsellor,” he recalls. “I started talking about the issues that I was having, what was bothering me, which helped a lot, you know, being able to talk about that stuff.”
From there, Morin contacted the Fresh Start Recovery Centre in Lethbridge and was placed on the waiting list. After about a month, he got the call that a bed was available.
Following a couple of relapses and stays at the Fresh Start location in Calgary, Morin returned to Lethbridge in September 2023. “I was getting more educated on recovery and getting therapy and things like that … and then I was like, I want to do something to help. I started looking through programs and decided I’d apply [at the polytechnic].”
Morin admits his initial goal was to earn enough credits to transfer to the University of Lethbridge’s addictions counselling degree program, but he says he quickly realized there was more for him to offer through social work and he’s now pursing his diploma in General Arts and Science – Psychology and Sociology.
In addition to leading the Donuts and Discussions peer support program on campus, Morin is also a regular volunteer at Fresh Start in Lethbridge, where he helps others in treatment and leads 12-step meetings.
“He’s just very honest and he’s very open and he’s very real,” says Harasem. “He’s OK with where everybody is, but he can also give people hope because he’s been through a lot, he still goes through a lot, and he’s doing it, he’s finding success. So, I think it shows people that their journey can shift, their journey can change.”
Morin is quick to point out that his role in Donuts and Discussions is not to be a therapist, or to intervene or even to push abstinence, but to focus on harm reduction and being a reliable confidant for students in need.
“I’m here to listen,” he says. “I can share my experience, my hope. I know the kind of courage it takes to come forward and admit you have a problem. Or … you can talk about a friend or a family member who has been struggling with addiction and how it affects you, how it might be seen from an addict’s point of view.”
Nicole Carpenter, a second-year General Arts and Science – Psychology and Sociology student and Donuts and Discussions participant, says she appreciates having a “comfortable, safe zone” on campus where she can connect with others.
“There was a point prior to my recovery of not knowing how to reach out to people and that stigma around addiction,” she says. “[Donuts and Discussions] is a gateway for people who are scared to reach out – a way to reach out without actually reaching out.”
Harasem adds that because of Morin and the group, the Wellness Services team has met several students who weren’t yet connected with campus supports.
“He’ll talk to them in class, or he’ll talk to them in the hallway, and he’ll [recommend] Wellness Services,” she says. “He’s one of our wellness ambassadors … he really does help students understand what we do and what our supports are and how to access them.”
Recovery Alberta, a provincial health agency, provides an addictions counsellor each Friday year-round. “She sometimes comes to Donuts and Discussions just to introduce herself and make sure the students know she’s here,” explains Harasem.
Post-secondaries can also apply to Recovery on Campus Alberta for provincial grant funding to help cover the cost of providing addiction and recovery supports. Harasem says Lethbridge Polytechnic has been fortunate to receive money each year to promote Donuts and Discussions and a plethora of other initiatives.
“We did a week of events and activities for National Addictions Awareness Week last November,” she says. “Some of it was naloxone and harm reduction training, because there have been [opioid-related] deaths on campuses in Canada where nobody had naloxone or didn’t know how to use it. We really try to promote that we have it available – it’s free and we train you on how to use it.”
Harasem says Wellness Services has also been working closely with Student Affairs over the past couple of years to make sure that for any campus event focused on partying and alcohol, like Last Class Bash, there is also an alcohol-free event. She says film screenings, games, bingo and mocktail bars have all been well received.
“The University of Alberta did a research study that they shared with all of us [in Recovery on Campus Alberta] and it showed a significant number of students will only come to an event if they know it’s substance free,” says Harasem. “They’re actually looking for that, either by choice or because they are in recovery.”
Substance-free options extend beyond organized social gatherings, too. Residence Life’s updated housing software allows students to match with roommates and choose their own rooms by selecting their living preferences. Preferences include substance-free, quiet zone, living with mature students, living with other Indigenous students, living with other international students, or no specific preference.
“Students would select ‘substance free’ as a living preference at the time of application,” says Shari Edwards, Residence and Guest Services co-ordinator. “Our system will automatically prioritize matching students with others who selected the same preference. Our software also allows the student to see their matches and chat back and forth to decide if they would like to be roommates.”
Edwards notes that all events hosted by the Residence Life team are alcohol free, and residence halls are welcoming social spaces that are completely alcohol free as well.
“We are well connected with Wellness Services,” she adds, “and we will often send referrals to our campus Care Team if another student or family member reports substance use concerns, and for many other reasons as well, throughout the year.”
Wellness Services counsellors are available by appointment each weekday year-round to offer support for a wide range of mental health concerns including stress, anxiety and depression, disordered eating and body image, substance, gambling and sex addictions, trauma and grief, abuse, sexual assault and more. They also help individuals connect to community resources off campus and can recommend Prescription to Get Active – a provincial program that encourages individuals to discover new activity options as they work toward a healthier life.
“For a lot of people in recovery [substance use] was how they spent their time,” Harasem says. “So, it’s like, OK, what are you going to do with your time now? It’s about finding new things to do and discovering new hobbies.”
The polytechnic’s Be Fit for Life (BFFL) Centre and Recreation Services are two of several participating locations in Lethbridge. Prescription holders can try any three BFFL fitness classes for free and can take advantage of a free one-month membership with Recreation Services that includes consultation with certified staff to discuss potential activities, a tour of the facility, an equipment demonstration and a progress follow-up session.
“It’s a great way to try a gym and there’s no financial cost to it,” Harasem says. “And then, if they like it, we know a subsidy program that can assist with covering membership long term. And that same subsidy program can be used for arts as well so for some people, maybe they’re going to turn to painting, or they want to explore beading or whatnot.”
For students in recovery, knowing help is available at Lethbridge Polytechnic – before they even arrive – can make all the difference.
“From the moment a person accepts their offer here, they can start accessing all of our services,” says Harasem. “It doesn’t have to wait until day one.”
The message – that support is available and encouraged – is one Carpenter hopes will reach more students. “I think the more it’s promoted and known, the more comfortable people will be with reaching out,” she says.
Morin agrees. “It’s hard,” he says. “You’ve got to be really willing, and you’ve got to crash and burn a lot to get there. I’ve managed two years of sobriety now, which is super hard – to abstain from anything for two years. That’s why I don’t put that kind of pressure on anybody.”
With growing awareness, campus-wide partnerships and programs designed to meet students where they are, Lethbridge Polytechnic is working to make recovery part of the conversation.
And Morin is at the heart of it.
“He will change people’s lives,” says Harasem. “I have no doubt.”
