Rising Above Grande Prairie opens Summit House Sept. 26

Executive director Adele-Marie Diffey says they have enough space for 36 men.

“We have a facility right now that has 19 beds for men,” Diffey says. “Then men will be moving over to his building, we’ll be almost doubling our reach for the need. And then we’ll be moving our women who are in the houses in the community into our original building.”

Diffey says everyone was very excited to see the facility open with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Saturday.

(Image Credit: Everything GP Staff/Nathaniel Leigh)

“I’ve only believed involved this less than a year, and there’s been a lot of work in just this year alone to get here,” she says. “So, I’m excited to actually get started and start having men in this here, starting using this building and getting further along with the planning and reaching more people.”

She says spaces like Summit House are greatly needed in northern Alberta.

“Lots of people, families, are being destroyed because of addiction, and there’s not enough places for people to get the help that they need,” she says. “Rising Above started off very small and very quickly realized that they needed more beds. We will not be very long before all the beds in this facility are filled.”

(Image Credit: Everything GP Staff/Nathaniel Leigh)

Grande Prairie MP Chris Warkentin and Grande Prairie MLA Nolan Dyck were among the guests for the ribbon cutting, as well as Rising Above founder and president Mel Siggelkow.

(Image Credit: Everything GP Staff/Nathaniel Leigh)

by Nathaniel Leigh