I need to make a couple of things clear based on actual investigation into the facts.
First of all. Vause has credentials. Vause fulfilled the requirements. Not that he needs them to run AARC.
Drug treatment for youth, in Canada, has NO CRITERIA, STANDARDS OR REGULATION regarding the necessity for credentials. It is an unregulated industry.
Vause, the clinical staff, the peer counselors, the host home parents, the oldcomers etc., are not REQUIRED to have credentials. So it really doesn't matter what credentials they do or do not have.
Certain donors require that AARC hold a level of accreditation with the Canadian Accreditation Counsel on Human Services, but upon query, they hold the lowest level of accreditation acceptable to their donors. They COULD be accredited at a higher level, they COULD be accredited as an alcohol and drug treatment center, or a residential facility, as they should be because this is what they claim they are and do, but they did/do not meet the standards for this higher level of accreditation.
Why? If you're a drug treatment center, why not be accredited as one? If you're a residential facility why not be accredited as one? Why only be accredited as a "community based program" right up there with the boys and girls club where kids hang out after school and play fooseball for a couple of hours. Is AARC not providing a higher level of service than that? They sure claim to be.
This is something the average person would not realize, or even think to look deeper into.
Now, if this was a provincially run program with USER FEES being paid by the province (I'm not saying the province doesn't give them money). That would be another story all together and THEN the issue of accreditation, regulation and credentials would come into play.
No, again, AARC IS NOT A SCHOOL. But AARC does have a classroom, an off campus classroom of the Alternative High School which IS a school. This is supposedly in place so the clients of AARC can receive an education when they reach a certain level in the program and are allowed to attend classes. What bothers me about this, is the coding these students receive to be attending this off campus classroom. It is very severe. High school level of schooling receives a certain amount of money per student and that amount is even higher with the students being "coded".
I was told my son would have to be "coded" to be accepted into the program and the school component. I can't say for certain if this is the case with ALL clients of AARC, especially considering many of those clients are too old to attend high school.
Not only that but my son started in the AARC program summer 2007. He didn't actually attend classes until the last month of the school year and only obtained credits in 2 courses. This is with him being registered as a full time student during the months of Sept - May that he wasn't permitted to attend classes. If this is the case for most of the clients that is a HUGE expense (high school costs plus additional funds for coded students) to our already strained education dollars for students who are not receiving an education.
Perhaps if the clients only attend for a month or two, the fees for one student/client should be applied to 10 clients. Each of them receiving their own portion of the allotted funds/class time.