"When they come in they are broken, they are so broken. That's why we use so much compassion at work and with what we do every day. And we tell them we're proud of them every single day. And that's when they start to regain that hope, is when we tell them 'You're one day sober and I'm proud of you.'"

We're thrilled to have Barbara Michel-Ballantyne on the podcast, talking about a successful land based and traditional knowledge treatment program that has helped her First Nations Saskatchewan community overcome a devastating crystal meth addiction epidemic.

She is the manager at Camp Hope, the Montreal Lake Child and Family Agency where she is Director for the Land Based Crystal Meth Rehab Centre.

She has close to twenty years of First Nations Child and Family services experience, focused around mental health, addictions and recovery. 

Camp Hope is a Land Based Therapeutic program, a family oriented facility located in a remote area of Montreal Lake Cree Nation in Treaty Six territory in Saskatchewan, that has helped hundreds of families with children to access recovery services.

For more on the work of Thunderbird, please visit our website at thunderbirdpf.org  You can find us on social media by searching for ThunderbirdPF  

Our theme music is by Courtney Riley, Chippewas of the Thames First Nation.  

Mino Bimaadiziwin is produced by David McGuffin of Explore Podcast Productions and the Thunderbird Partnership Foundation.