In the news: Freedom’s Door Kelowna opens new facility, offers second chances and changes lives

A recent article from Castanet highlights the work happening at Freedom’s Door as we open our new facility, but as we read it, we couldn’t help but think of all of the people off camera who make it possible: our volunteers who show up week after week, our staff who pour their hearts into this work, the donors who give generously, and the neighbours who’ve supported us.

Every meal served, every bed filled, every second chance. That doesn’t happen because of one organization. It happens because a whole community decides to care.

We wanted to share Castanet’s piece with you.

You can read the full article below (original at Castanet).

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Castanet – Rob Gibson – May 16, 2026

In a city where homelessness and addiction is prevalent, one organization has been quietly doing the hard work of putting lives back together for more than two decades.

Freedom’s Door, operated by the Resurrection Recovery Resource Society, has been providing housing, food and addiction recovery programs to Kelowna’s most vulnerable men since 2002.

What started with nothing more than a determined board of directors and a vision has grown into one of the largest recovery homes in the province: nine multi-family homes and two rental units housing more than 110 people year-round.

Each year, Freedom’s Door provides more than 38,000 bed nights and serves upward of 115,000 meals. Approximately 75 men graduate from the 90-day addiction recovery program annually, and more than 2,200 men have come through the doors since the organization’s founding. Residents themselves give back more than 4,500 volunteer hours to the community every year.

“These are the type of things that help kind of just fill you up. I mean, when you look at an organization like Freedom Door, 24 years… They’ve helped transition 1800 individuals within our community and within our region who needed to find a better path forward,” says Kelowna Mayor Tom Dyas.

The program’s approach is rooted in the faith-based 12-step model of Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous, combined with evidence-based practices.

Freedom’s Door chairman Helmut Hubert says they are changing lives. “And we see changed lives every day, we see miracles every day.”

Trinity Church lead pastor Scott Lanigan says the society fills an important need.

“An organization that does it open-handedly, which I think Freedom’s Door is so good at doing, they don’t force feed it, they invite it, and if you can invite that often, that’s one of the triggers towards healing,” says Lanigan.

Men who complete the 90-day program can continue into the Next Steps Program, which focuses on life skills, employment training, budgeting and relationship building. More than 95 per cent of Next Steps participants find employment.

Roughly 75 per cent of residents arrive with significant mental health challenges, including severe depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Most come from the streets, from jail or are referred by hospitals, social workers and parole officers.

Wanda Agar says her work is very satisfying.

“This is my 16th year, and I’ve watched it grow from just three houses to what we have today, from 30 to 40 guys to well over 100.”

One of those men is Jayden Freier, who is now six months sober and looking forward to going back to school.

“Six months ago, I never would have guessed that my life would look anything like this.

“The other day I made a breakfast here, and I had this big, beautiful meal, and I look around this beautiful house, and I went to pray, which is not something I normally do, and actually started to tear up a little bit, because I was just so overwhelmed with gratitude,” Freier says.

In British Columbia, drug overdose deaths continue to claim more than 150 lives per month.

Freedom’s Door operates primarily without direct, ongoing provincial funding due to governmental policy mismatches, its chosen abstinence-based model, and a reliance on community-driven capital.

With phase one of the Belair Townhouses project now finished, phase two will soon get underway.

Original story: https://www.castanet.net/news/Kelowna/614656/Freedoms-Door-Kelowna-offers-second-chances-and-changes-lives