The 7 Stars We Steer By
Safe Harbour Society
Providing First Steps to Recovery
Contact
office@safeharboursociety.org
phone: 1-403-347-0181
fax: 1-403-347-7275
Address
5246 53 Avenue
Red Deer, AB T4N 5K2
Our mission at Safe Harbour is to provide spaces of welcome and connection to the people we serve, our organization and our community. Toward that end, these 7 Stars guide us in our interactions with others and help to ensure a safe space to be human.
Relationship
is our North Star at Safe Harbour and our first priority. We are committed to sustaining and enhancing the connection we make through all of the relationships we establish.
“As we start to really get to know others, as we begin to listen to each other, things begin to change. We begin the movement from exclusion to inclusion, from fear to trust, from closed-minded to open-minded, from judgment and prejudice to forgiveness and understanding. It is a movement of the heart.” ~ Jean Vanier
Peacemaking
We strive to not only keep relationships intact but to nourish and enrich them through peaceful and respectful dialogue.
“Peace does not mean an absence of conflicts; differences will always be there. Peace means solving these differences through peaceful means; through dialogue, education, knowledge; and through humane ways.” – Dalai Lama XIV
Truthtelling
Simply put, truth telling is communicating with someone about an experience you had and how you truly felt about it. It sounds easy but challenges us continually as it demands we take the risk to be vulnerable.
“You have to start with the truth. The truth is the only way that we can get anywhere, because any decision-making that is based upon lies or ignorance can’t lead to a good conclusion.” ~ Julian Assange
Storytelling
can transform the way of thinking. People may hear statistics, but they feel stories. It sticks with them. Storytelling connects people. Stories bring people close. They tell us great truths in simple, personal ways. They bring concepts and strategies to life.
“When we tell stories, we touch hearts.” ~ Jean Vanier
Listening
goes beyond words. We listen with our hearts and we open our minds to not only hear the words people say but to observe them with all our senses.
“People start to heal the moment they feel heard.” ~ Cheryl
Compassion
opens our hearts to the pain and suffering of those around us.
We all suffer, and it’s our deep awareness of the suffering of one another, coupled with the wish to relieve it, that drives us to do what we do. We strive to see everything through the lens of compassion.
“Compassion is ethical intelligence: it is the capacity to make connections and the consequent urge to act to relieve the suffering of others.” ~ Will Tuttle
Risk Taking
“You cannot sail for the new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore”
We take risks in our community by providing programs for intoxicated people. Our programs and services are outside of societal norms and have a tendency to poke belief systems. The life saving harm reduction strategies we use confuse our community who only want to see people recover completely and immediately. Very often logical solutions for the mainstream are illogical for the “in the meantime’ programs we provide.
“A ship in the Harbour is safe but that’s not what sails were made for” ~ William Shedd