UCalgary Recovery-Friendly Campus pledge opens a new chapter

The University of Calgary has become the first Alberta post-secondary institution to sign the Recovery-Friendly Campus (RFC) pledge. The pledge is part of a broader initiative led by the UCalgary Recovery Community (UCRC) and Recovery on Campus Alberta (ROC) to create a campus environment where all recovery pathways are prioritized and celebrated, for students, faculty and staff. 

Aligned with UCalgary's Ahead of Tomorrow strategic plan and Community Mental Health and Well-Being Strategy, the pledge is tailored to the unique needs of Alberta’s post-secondary community. Both the UCRC and ROC were founded by Dr. Victoria Burns, PhD, an associate professor in the Faculty of Social Work, an addiction-recovery researcher and a person in long-term addiction recovery herself.

The pledge, which aligns with ROC’s mission to sustain programs that support all pathways to recovery, has eight criteria: 

1. Provide peer-centred, all-recovery pathways programming for students and employees.
2. Raise awareness, educate and advocate about addiction recovery to reduce stigma.
3. Ensure that recovery is normalized, valued and celebrated through increased visibility.
4. Provide a recovery-friendly space on campus to build community.
5. Create recovery-friendly events and activities on campus.
6. Ensure student and employee support teams meet the needs of campus members along the addiction-recovery spectrum.
7. Increase awareness and address the needs of family members/friends of campus members in or seeking recovery.
8. Promote inclusive campus life by addressing systemic barriers for campus members along the addiction-recovery spectrum.

UCalgary signed the pledge on Sept. 10 at the UCalgary Recovery Community Hub, #5, 3500 24th Ave. N.W, located in the Yamnuska Hall student housing building.

“Alberta is full of incredible partners helping us build a strong culture of recovery throughout the province," said Dan Williams, minister of Mental Health and Addiction. "Our government is grateful for work being done at the University of Calgary, to those leading the program, and especially to the students, staff and faculty for their recovery.” 

Burns says institutional support is vital to fostering environments where people feel safe talking about their struggles.

“People are terrified of reaching out for help,” says Burns. “They're terrified of being found out, and we're here to challenge that. We're here to recover out loud, so that we can normalize the idea that you can be in an academic setting, you can be in recovery, you can thrive.”

For one UCalgary alum, the new pledge is deeply personal. UCRC volunteer Christopher Melendez, BSc (Eng)’21, says he has been sober since early 2023 and, during his time as a student, he felt isolated seeking help.

“I tried to access help and was sent to addiction services downtown, but being an addict leaving campus, passing multiple liquor stores, it made me feel like I was alone in this,” says Melendez.

Melendez’s journey through addiction and recovery shaped his perspective on the role that organizations like UCRC play in a student’s life. Reflecting on his experiences with homelessness and balancing education with severe addiction, he understands the need for supportive environments.

“People ask me how I managed to graduate in active addiction and my answer is because of addiction. It was either I was going to graduate, or I was going to die,” says Melendez. “It feels gratifying that that doesn’t have to be someone else’s answer. This space can be their answer to how they finished their degree.” 

Since forming in 2021, UCRC has evolved into a comprehensive program recognized as a leader across Alberta. Its initial success paved the way for a $500,000 grant from the Government of Alberta in 2022, which recently committed to an additional three-year, $3-million grant.

Burns says a portion of the provincial grant will go toward seed funding for ROC’s 26 partnered post-secondary institutions, helping these universities and colleges co-create their own recovery-friendly supports and events on campus.

Funded by the UCalgary Students’ Union’s Quality Money program, the UCRC currently offers substance-free events and residence housing, peer support, harm-reduction and recovery ally training, research, and awards through its on-campus location in Yamnuska Hall.

ROC Alberta co-ordinator Chelsie Graham, BSW’22, says activities and dedicated spaces help to ensure people who are curious about recovery can build community together.

“People are starting to engage in the idea that recovery isn't just abstinence,” Graham says. “Recovery is healthy steps towards a better lifestyle for yourself with that problematic relationship with whatever you’re struggling with.”

But, for these initiatives and programs to be truly effective, Burns says, they must be a part of a whole-campus approach. That’s where the pledge comes in, garnering commitment and alignment at all levels of the university to ensure meaningful transformation across the entire campus community. 

“It's going to require leadership from the top in order for this program to continue to grow and reach the people it needs to reach and be sustainable,” says Burns. “It's getting the message out to a more general public that recovery doesn't have to be something that you're ashamed of.”

For Melendez, the pledge and the UCRC and ROC’s efforts are not just about policy changes; they are lifelines that have given him and others the chance to reclaim their lives and to give back to their communities.

“I laugh because I’m more proud to say I’m a recovering addict than to say I’m an engineer because addiction took me to hell, and the fact that I came out of that … I got my life back,” says Melendez. “I get to start my life.”

To learn more about the Recovery-Friendly Campus Pledge and what it means for the community, read the full pledge.