$1M gift leads to new Kitchener women's addiction centre

The House of Friendship is building a new drug treatment centre for womenin Kitchener thanks to a $1 million donation from local philanthropists.

The centre will be located at the former Anselma House on Ann Streetnear Bruce and Frederick streets.

John Neufeld, the executive director of The House of Friendship, said the facility will provide services ranging from "counselling to day treatment to an actual residential facility where women will live there up to three months for treatment."

"It's right in the midst of construction...we're anticipating it being ready before the end of this year."

The money for the facilitycomes from a group of philanthropists whoboughttwo adjacentpieces of land on Charles Streetwhere ayouth addiction centre was to be built. But those plans were shelved in 2008, and the land stayed empty.

Meanwhile, the House of Friendship was attempting last yearto convert the Anselma House shelter,which had moved fromAnn Street to a new location on Heritage Drive in 2011,toa women's drug treatment centre.

The philanthropists including Norma and Rick Brock, Steve and Susan Scherer, James Petrozziand Mac Voisin decided to turn over $1 million from the futuresaleof theCharles Street property to The House of Friendship.

"That group of individuals came together. It wasn't about the egos, it wasn't about anything. They just wanted to make a difference in the community," said Neufeld.

"It just shows that in this community that when we come together and we have a vision to care for others, some pretty amazing things happen."