It is our pleasure to share with you the exciting event that took place at the Recovery Capital Summit Conference, Tuesday, April 12th at approximately 3:15 PM.
Jim Moore was selected by the Minister of Mental Health and Addiction, the Honorable Mike Ellis, to receive the Alberta Lifetime Achievement Award for his many years of service to the Calgary Dream Centre.
Jim Moore is the CEO and a founding member of the Calgary Dream Centre (CDC). His passion to see broken lives changed was influenced by his grandfather, who taught him the importance of helping the disenfranchised through taking him each week to hand out peanut butter sandwiches at the local mission.
Helping the homeless and hurting became a value that Jim has carried throughout his life. During his time in the corporate world, Jim would often be found spending his lunch hours on the streets, encouraging, and feeding those who needed a hand up.
Jim entered the nonprofit world after many years of leadership in business, banking, real-estate, entrepreneur ventures and church ministry. His career moved him across Canada, from Calgary to Vancouver and then to Toronto. He eventually landed back in Calgary, where he helped found the CDC.
In October 2003, Jim used his real estate experience to help secure a hotel known to be full of drugs, and strip clubs on Macleod Trail in Calgary. This hotel was then restored into an addiction and homelessness recovery centre.
Since that day, the organization has grown tremendously. It started with introducing a Men’s Recovery Program and Transitional Housing Program in 2004, which houses up to 130 individuals at one time.
Jim recognized the need for affordable, recovery-based housing was increasing, so in 2010, Jim once again used his background in real estate and purchased 47 properties across the city, and the Community Housing Program was born.
The need for addiction recovery programming for vulnerable women was growing in Calgary, so in 2016, Jim launched the Women’s Recovery Program. To support the graduates of this program, another apartment building was purchased to provide long-term supportive housing.
In 2020, Jim used his experience from the past as an entrepreneur and business owner, to start several social enterprises. These acted as both employment and skill training for the residents, and as another source of income to support the various programs at the CDC.
In 2021, the Social Detox program was birthed out of a grant opportunity that the Alberta Government provided. This program provided a safe place to stay for those wanting to enter treatment, or those who had relapsed while in treatment. This program was not just for residents of the CDC, but individuals from other agencies across the city.
In total, the CDC now houses 371 residents, across 49 properties within the City of Calgary at one time. It has housed over 9000 individuals over the years and continues to make a difference in the life of Calgarian’s each day. Without Jim’s drive to help those overcoming homelessness and addiction,
Without Jim’s drive to help those overcoming homelessness and addiction, the CDC would not be where it is today.
Jim’s belief is that without collaboration with his great team at the Dream Centre, and the partnerships with the Alberta Government, Calgary Homeless Foundation, and the Dream Centre’s corporate and private donors, none of this would have been achieved. It truly has been a team effort!
The Calgary Dream Centre congratulates Jim on his achievement and would like to pass along its gratitude for Jim’s years of service. He has poured not just his time, but his heart and passion into helping shape the Calgary Dream Centre into what it is today.
