Daybreak Youth Opens Center for Teen Recovery
By: Cameron Kast
Brush Prairie, Wash. — A youth recovery non-profit has opened a new center to help teens heal from chemical dependency and addiction. The RWC Center for Adolescent Recovery in Brush Prairie is the first center of its kind in southwest Washington — it will offer beds of three types for adolescents: residential, psychiatric, and detox beds.
Daybreak Youth Services, the non-profit organization that opened the new center, is dedicated to helping young people with mental health and addiction recovery. The new center will accept any adolescent — boy or girl — under the age of 18. However, its focus is primarily on youth from 12 to 18 years old from Washington state.
“Here [at the RWC Center] you can get treated for all of your needs,” said Katy McCallister, a primary inpatient counselor for Daybreak. “You can get treated for mental health and chemical dependence, all in one center.”
The new center will feature 40 residential beds (half for males and the other half for females), six detox beds and 12 psychiatric beds, said Alayna Becker, Daybreak Youth Services’ communications manager. And like other programs at Daybreak, it will serve mostly low-income youth.
“Eighty percent of the kids we serve are on Medicaid,” Becker said.
The hope and idea for the new center has been in the works at Daybreak since 1999, when the organization first came to Clark County. But the gears to turn the idea into reality were set in motion only in 2015, when the non-profit started to look for funding and started planning the floor plan.
According to Daybreak’s budget for the center, the total cost of the RWC Center was $9.7 million, 94 percent of which has already been paid for in donations from individuals and organizations.
Getting the center planned and built included a few challenges.
“Retrofitting an old building saved about $4 million… [however], you can’t have a residential treatment facility in a rural area,” Becker said. The non-profit had to re-zone the land for commercial use. “We bought the building and hoped for the best,” Becker said.
Before the Brush Prairie center was built, teen boys from all over the state of Washington were sent to the facility in Vancouver and teen girls to a female only facility in Spokane. Adolescents who needed detox or psychiatric beds were sent to either Spokane or Seattle, said Becker.
The new center is a large improvement over the current males-only center in Vancouver, which only has 16 beds and an outpatient facility and the current females-only center in Spokane with its 40 bed inpatient facility for girls. The new center will support both male and female patients, has a gymnasium and chapel, as well as family meeting areas.
At the center’s grand opening in May, people gathered in the new dining hall. The crowd included state and county officials, along with adults from the community and a small group of teens.
“This is exactly the spirit of what Clark County is about,” said state representative Liz Pike, who represents the 18th district, at the grand opening. “The real heroes of this project are the kids that have the courage to face their demons and come here [To Daybreak].”
Many speakers at the grand opening spoke about the issues kids have with getting access to addiction treatment and care.
“Having a place so close to home can make all the difference in the world,” said Lynda Wilson, a senator from Washington’s 17th legislative district. “No more sending kids to Seattle, no more denying kids help because they can’t cross state lines.”
Others said the new center was a model in recovery treatment in comparison to the old centers that were only meant to be temporary.
“I think the best thing about the new center is that it shows kids that they are loved and respected,” said Sheri Terjeson, Daybreak’s vice president of external relations. “This is an example of what youth recovery can be.” Terjeson later said that if [Daybreak] could get to kids earlier, it would be life changing.
After the opening ceremony, teens and adults were invited to see the center during an open house. A few of the teens spoke about their experiences at Daybreak and what the program means to them.
“For me, Daybreak is a really big part of my sobriety,” said Peter, a former resident. He asked that his name not be used to protect his privacy.
Another former resident, Taylor, said Daybreak is “a place I can go to if I need help outside of drugs.” Both Peter and Taylor now attend the outpatient program at the Vancouver facility on Falk Road.
Daybreak is already planning its next project. The non-profit is hoping to soon bring youth sober housing to Washington State. The success rate of kids at Daybreak is about 60 percent, Becker said. “The missing link is a lack of transitional housing for youth. 60–70 percent of the kid’s parents are using [drugs] at home.”
One day, Becker said, Daybreak may be able to help kids all the way through addiction, not just the start of the process.
