Mani Daniels Centre Basks In Maberly Hall Support

Jeff Green | Mar 06, 2024

Judging from the reception at the Maberly Hall last Saturday afternoon, local opposition to setting up the Mani Daniels is not as widespread in the village as it appeared to be a couple of weeks ago, at Tay Valley Council.

While the council meeting had been focussed on zoning amid concerns among neighbours, the Maberly Hall meeting was all about healing and support for the men that will reside at the Mani Daniels Centre if and when it gets up and running. There was also a good dose of talk about struggle, redemption, 12-step programs, and God, among the presentations during the afternoon.

A number of Mani Daniels supporters took the stage to talk about the niche that the centre is planning to fill for men with substance abuse disorder who are at a point where they are ready to make the kinds of changes that will help them to establish a drug free life for themselves.

Speakers included the mother of a son who is entering into Mani Daniels even though it is not completely up and running, parents who lost a son to drugs, a man who is in the midst of rebuilding his life and is training to help others, as well as the former owner of a treatment centre in Maberly, who came along at the request of Mani Daniels founder Spencer Kell.

Anthony Fritz operated the Ottawa Maberly Addiction Rehabilitation Residence in a property that is right up the road from the Mani Daniels Centre, for two and a half years before closing the centre in 2020.

He described how the support of people who believed in him was the difference between standing on the stage at the hall and being “dead or incarcerated”.

“It is people like Spencer Kell, and centres like the Mani Daniels Centre, that make the difference, and that’s why I’m here and that’s why I support what he is doing,” he said.

Fritz also pointed out, when asked, that at the time his centre was up and running, there were no calls to the police from either the centre or the neighbouring community.

When asked, after leaving the stage, why he shuttered his centre in 2020, Fritz said it was financial pressure that made him decide to give it up.

“We were privately funded by our clients and their families, and the monthly operating costs were too great for our revenue. I had some backers, and they were willing to wait, but I did not see how we were going to turn from loss to profit, so I had to close at that point,” he said.

However, he said that he is still in touch with a number of people who were able to turn their lives around after spending time at the centre in Maberly.

“So, in that sense I feel it was a success, it made a difference for people who needed it.”

Spencer Kell talked about his personal history and what he hopes to accomplish with the Mani Daniels Centre, and then took questions from the audience, along with members of the Board of Directors of Love Soluble, the charitable not-for-profit corporation overseeing the centre.

He said that the target audience for the centre is men, and one of the main avenues for men to find their way to the centre is through the criminal justice system, which has been one of the concerns raised by some in Maberly.

Kell provided some detail that might assuage some of those fears. He said that because it will be men who are alleged to have committed crimes and are being held in custody, the men will be off drugs when they come before a judge seeking bail.

The second thing is that the Centre will not be offering surety to the courts for the men who come there. The men will need to be able to convince a judge that they will be responsible for themselves. When they come to the Mani Daniels Centre, they will also be expected to attend the intensive phase of a 12 step program, 90 meetings in 90 days.

While Spencer Kell makes no secret of the religious nature of his own recovery, and said he will be handing the men a bible when they arrive at the centre, he did not say that the entire treatment program will be religious based or that participants must embrace Christianity, or any other religion, in order to take part in treatment.

The major hurdle that Love Soluble is facing in trying to set up Mani Daniels, is not the renovation project, or acceptance by the local community, although both of those are important factors.

Spencer Kell’s answer to a question about how the centre will be financed, said it all.

“There is a donation bin at the back,” he said. He then added that foundation funding is being pursued, as is support from provincial sources.

“It costs $350 a day to keep someone in prison while waiting for trial. We can house them, provide support treatment, life skills, training, work placements, and a way to set themselves up to succeed in the real world, for under $200 a day. That has to be attractive to corrections,” he said.

While there were a number of questions about community safety, the majority of the crowd came to show their support. Among those in attendance was Tay Valley Reeve Rob Rainer. Near the end of the meeting, Ramsey Hart, Executive Director of the Table Community Food Centre in Perth, said the Table would like to welcome Love Soluble and the Mani Daniels Centre to the local community and offered whatever help The Table is able to provide.