Recovery and Re-creation: Fabio's Journey at Vancouver Harbour Light

Fabio Russo has been clean and sober for five years, since he came to The Salvation Army’s Harbour Light facility in Vancouver. Now a friendly employee at the facility's front desk, Fabio reflects on his recovery journey and how Harbour Light's "play" program played a crucial role. 

On this episode of the podcast, we're also joined by Harbour Light employees Cindy Cheung, community engagement co-ordinator,  and John Polkki, director of spiritual care, who offer insight into the "why" behind the program—how "play" builds crucial life skills and reconnects us with our Creator, and why even go-karting can be a spiritual experience. 

Transcript

Kristin Ostensen  

This is the Salvationist podcast. I'm Kristin Ostensen.

Kristin Ostensen  

Fabio Russo is the friendly face that greets you when you arrive at The Salvation Army's Harbour Light facility in Vancouver. He's been working at the front desk for about five years now. But before that he was a client himself. In this episode of the Salvationist podcast, Fabio shares his recovery journey, and how Harbour Light's "play" program played a pivotal role. Hi, Fabio, welcome to the Salvationist podcast. 

Fabio Russo  

Thank you. 

Kristin Ostensen  

It's great to have you here. 

Fabio Russo  

It's great to be here. 

Kristin Ostensen  

First off, can you just tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey?

Fabio Russo  

Sure. Grew up in Montreal, born and raised, 1974, a long time ago. I, for the most part, have been a worker all my life, you know, regular schooling, never exceeded high school. So, in my younger years, being a Montreal, big city, I have worked with my dad all my life. And since the age of six, every summer, I would go in and work with him.

Kristin Ostensen  

What kind of work was that?

Fabio Russo  

Steel, steel industry. We would manufacture garage doors, industrial, all the way from residential to industrial. And I pretty much always grew with older people, like, all the colleagues—20 years older, 30, 40 years older. And that was my uprising. I was surrounded by older people. And, of course, well, that led to some kind of a disaster. You know, I've wanted to be accepted with the olders. And you know, I started hanging around with them more than often. And then addiction kicked in. It was mostly a choice that I made. I mean, I am in the addiction world right now. I'm still living it, still recovering. And being here at the Salvation Army Harbour Light made me realize that there's so many classifications of addiction. And I'm no better than anyone else. But it was my choice, ultimately. It wasn't because of my past, of any stories that we hear, you know. But because of that, I think that led me to prolong it for like 30 years plus, you know, thinking that I got everything under control. And then 2012 came. Well, and then I founded a beautiful family, two beautiful kids, Tristan and Stella. And 2012, rock bottom came, as we say in recovery. Twenty years prior to that, I came down with kiddos' mom, here in Vancouver, and I loved it. And then when rock bottom hit, the first thing that came to my thoughts were, I need to move, I need to get away from here because it'll be that or it will be my end. So, I said, OK, well, I'm going back to Vancouver. I guess it was wishful thinking, thinking that this would bring back my family together. But it did not happen. So, I came here, lasted a few years, still in addiction. And one night, the night before I came here, in Vancouver Harbour Light, I was walking on Abbott Street, and this guy came out of a bar—very serious man, tall guy, six foot four, I would say. And I was active addiction. And I came face to face with him. And he looked at me straight in the eyes, he came out of the bar, and he wasn't all drunk or anything, he just looked at me straight in the eyes, and he said "Hey, bud, it's never too late." I remember that moment and it just—OK, whatever, and I just continued my path. The next day, I met Simon Rosengarten, which is an employee. I was kind of wrecked but he sat down beside me. And I knew him because I had been using the shelters. And he told me, "You know, Fabio, there's other solutions. And you know, you don't have to live this." On the third day, the morning, I woke up and I said, You know what? I'm going to give it a try. I'll call detox. So, I went to detox, came here, stayed for 10 days. I met Darcy Mccarthy, who's an awesome lady. And she really guided me and she made me stay. If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't have stayed, I'm pretty sure of that. And then I joined treatment and did my one year full. I had, to my opinion, the best counselor ever, Lida Bahrami. She's not here with us anymore, but she is an amazing lady. And then I did my one-year treatment. And I would hope that my work ethic brought them to say, Hey, let's give this guy a chance and give him a job, because that will make my father proud. Because everything I learned is from him—work ethics. And here I am, five years later, clean and sober. And yeah, it's all because of Salvation Army, definitely. There's no question about it.

Kristin Ostensen  

Vancouver Harbour Light offers a whole range of programming, a continuum of care that includes community meals, shelters, detox, residential addiction treatment, a correctional halfway house, low-income housing, and much more. As a Salvation Army facility, a key component of Habour Light's programming is spiritual care. And one aspect of spiritual care is play. We may not think of play as a spiritual exercise, but it is—just ask the Harbour Light staff.

Cindy Cheung  

Hi, I'm Cindy. I'm the community engagement co-ordinator in Vancouver Harbour Light.

John Polkki  

My name is John. I'm the spiritual care director at Harbour Light on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

Kristin Ostensen  

Thank you. Welcome to the Salvationist podcast. So, I'm wondering if we can start with you explaining how the play program at Vancouver Harbour Light began. Where did the idea come from?

John Polkki  

Counselors here at Harbour Light occasionally took clients in the recovery program for hikes. But it was not regular; it was semi-regular. And then a Salvation Army officer, Major Henry, took on the role of spiritual care director some years ago, and he started to do regular monthly hikes with the guys. When he moved on to another posting, I took on his role as spiritual care director. And we simply continued the monthly hikes, but we branched out to other activities as well.

Kristin Ostensen  

All right, and what kind of activities do you do on a regular basis?

John Polkki  

We've done a variety of activities in the last five or six years, like physical recreational activities like hiking, biking, rock climbing. We've gone to sporting events like Canucks game. We've also included cultural and musical activities in there as well, like museum visits. We've gone to hear symphony concerts, and so on. So, we try to do a combination of both physical and cultural and social activities.

Kristin Ostensen  

That sounds like so much fun. Which of those tend to be the most popular with your folks?

John Polkki  

I would say the ones that are most popular are the ones that you do with with speed. The kind of thing like go-karting and tubing. 

Kristin Ostensen  

Nice.

John Polkki  

So, during go-karting, for instance, a client told, just recently said, "Wow, I got a better high from go-karting than I did from drugs." So, I think we're doing something good here.

Kristin Ostensen  

Nice. Yeah, no, I have to go-karting for many years, but I have fond memories of going around the tracks. So, it's funny, right? We don't necessarily associate recovery with play. And of course, recovery can be a long and complex process for many people. I wonder if you could talk about how play contributes to recovery?

Cindy Cheung  

Yeah, I think play is a very crucial part of recovery. Play shows clients like another outlet where they can de-stress, and most people do not fall into addictions because they like the drug, but because it is a coping mechanism for life trauma or a difficult life situation. And that's why in Harbour Light, we like to have a holistic approach of recovery. And not only do we do the medical part, the detox, the counseling, the treatment, and offer spiritual support, which are all very important, too. But we also encourage clients to grow holistically by discovering hobbies, engaging in community and playing. And for our Harbour Light team, our counselors are very supportive of this. They go on outings with them. And this gives a chance for clients to build relationship with their counselors and get to know a side of them outside the Harbour Light facility while they're enjoying the same activity. And many of our clients had very difficult childhoods. They have a lack of parental figures to go for guidance, or to look up to or to teach them how to cope with stress. And some clients only had gang members as role models growing up. And some clients just have never seen things that they have went on go-karting before—they've never went on go-karting before, they've never went on a nature hike before, they've never been outside the city before. It's a lot of firsts for our clients. And as adults, we are expected to have a certain level of social skills and certain level of resilience that we learned through our childhood, our youth, which takes a lot of time, and how to interact with people, these unspoken rules that we all have. But our clients never really had that. So, as an adult, where do you go to learn all these skills? Where do you, what opportunities do you have when the society already expects you to have them. Society is not so tolerant of maybe you making like a weird gesture when you're an adult versus when you're a child or a kid. But in these outings, it gives them that chance to kind of learn that again. It gives them a safe and a trusted environment with a group of people who it's a safe space for them to kind of essentially discover these skills and to learn and build those interactions again, which would in turn help them with job, with their building, repairing relationships with family and building supportive communities and groups, which is a very important part of recovery, to not be isolated and have a supportive community that you can fall back to.

Kristin Ostensen  

That's so true. And it's so fascinating to think, you know, we take the idea of play as a child for granted. And yet, that's really not everyone's experience. And it's really eye-opening to just even think of it from that perspective. Like, how do people learn how to play if they're never given the opportunity? It sounds like this program is a really healing experience for a lot of the clients. And I note that this program falls under the Harbour Light spiritual care program. I'm wondering if you can talk a little bit about how play can actually be a spiritual experience, not just "fun," as it were.

John Polkki  

I think we approach, as chaplains, we approach life from the perspective that we can't compartmentalize human experience or separate our human side from our divine side. And we think that play involves a shared experience of body, mind and spirit. For instance, nature activities, surrounded by creation, and all that means, well, we hope that points to a Creator. A client once mentioned that when he's on our outings he feels like a human. We believe, just like God created the world in six days and he rested on the seventh, as humans we're made in his image, we're made for purposeful work, but for rest as well. And recreation, I've heard it said really can be interpreted as "re-creation." They re-create something. It's not just empty and void; it's actually have a purpose for it, to it. And we think that everyone needs that re-creation, needs that rest, including our clients who do the hard work of recovery for a whole week. And we see recreation and play as part of God's creation story and also theirs. So, on a spiritual level, we're offering the clients the opportunity to rediscover their own creation story, if you want to put it that way. Where once their identity was that of a drug addict, that's not who God made them to be. They're actually children of God who were made for a purpose and have personal interests, to delight in God and his creation and the surroundings that he put in the world around us. Whereas the drugs we believe are the devil's foothold in their lives. After all, the devil came to steal, kill and destroy. And we see re-creation as part of God's invitation to redeem their lives, to redeem what the devil has done in their lives.

Fabio Russo  

In my addiction years, you isolate, right? It's no news for anyone, but you isolate a lot. And I'm an outgoing guy and I love people. But that addiction eliminated that out of my life. And when they came and told me that we have softball and we have all these, you know—great! That's gonna bring unity back, you know, and a family pretty much, you know, camaraderie. And that's what really I enjoyed the most—the camaraderie. So the softball is great. It's awesome. I wish I could play, but I'm so busy right now working here and trying to cope with everything. And every time they play, I end up working. But next year, I promised that I will be back, I told them. And then there's also the great Camp Sunrise. That was also a very interesting experience, you know—beautiful site and, again, it brought unity. It just opens everybody up, meaning that there's no shyness; you can speak to your peers about whatever's happening, you know. And frankly, I think that that should be applicable to every human being on earth. But I guess, in a weird way, us addicts are blessed, in a certain way, you know, to discover the way—to rediscover the way to communicate. That's a big miss in the world, to my opinion.

Kristin Ostensen  

What do you think it is about the play program that actually creates that kind of camaraderie? Like what is sort of special or unique about it? 

Fabio Russo  

Well, the first thing that really helps is the fact that the chaplains are present. I've seen it, I've noticed that a lot of guys walk in here and say, I don't believe in anything. Sure enough, a few weeks down the road, you see them change, you know, there's a change there, you know. Might not be 100 percent, but there's a change, you know. Because we also have the music, the—I'll call it our orchestra. And that's another great thing, you know—during Christmas, having our choir go sing for the elderly, see the joy that's coming out in their faces. You know, last time I went, I was amazed because I walked in there and I saw some people who had dementia. And it's the first time ever in my whole life experience that I came face to face with a person that had hardcore dementia. And I saw the emptiness in their eyes, you know, looking in the emptiness. When we started playing, the smile came in. You saw that they brought, it woke them up. You know, it was really special. But all of that really is because it's thanks to the chaplain. Back in the day, we had chaplain Mike, Michael. He was the band, I guess, music co-ordinator. And of course, we have Mr. John Polkki, which is an amazing man. But just the presence of the chaplains, I think it just brings peace to everyone somehow. I'm Catholic, and I'm a believer, I believe 100 percent. I grew up in church, and all that. So, I think this is the critical point. I don't think we would get the same result if there would be no chaplains, frankly. If it would just be normies—like "normies," if I may say that—like us, you know, there's a wisdom somewhere that is applicable that we don't have and they just, you know, they transfer it to us. So yeah.

Kristin Ostensen  

Thinking back on your experience as a client in the play program, are there any particular memories that stand out for you?

Fabio Russo  

Yeah, when we won the cup. It was funny because it was the worst teams cup.

Kristin Ostensen  

The worst teams cup? [laughs] OK, tell me about this. Tell me about this.

Fabio Russo  

It's a big competition, right. Every year, we have the softball, I guess, tournament. And we ended up being the worst of the best teams—the best of the worst teams. And we won the cup of it. So it was really happy. Yeah, that was a really good—we brought it back. Oh, yeah. So, I was told that it's been years since Salvation Army had won it. And I was so happy that I was part of the crew that brought it back.

Kristin Ostensen  

Nice. So, is this something that's played among various shelters in Vancouver or?

Fabio Russo  

Recovery homes mostly.

Kristin Ostensen  

Recovery homes. Oh, OK.

Fabio Russo  

Yeah, pretty much every recovery house has their own softball team. And then we're together. And it's a beautiful day. It's a gathering—we're talking like, hundreds and hundreds of people. They have a barbecue. And a nice, you know, again, unity at the beginning, and at the end, we do our big circle, you know, and we say what we need to say in recovery. So, it's pretty cool. It's pretty nice. But then you see the guys that are just not sports fanatics, and they give their heart and soul. They're burnt, they're hurting but [laughs] it's super cool.

Kristin Ostensen  

That's great. That sounds like a lot of fun. 

Kristin Ostensen  

You know, some might have a question around, you know, why are we taking folks out on a ski trip? Why are we taking people who are in recovery out to museums? Do you think there's some misunderstandings around how play can be a part of recovery?

Cindy Cheung  

Yeah, I definitely do think, not everyone in the community, but there are some community members who might have a misunderstanding of why we take clients to outings, and why we take them to play. And I understand that this comes from, a lot of the time this comes from an emotion of care and love because they feel like clients should, we should give clients the opportunity to have jobs; we should give clients the opportunity to have medical support and stuff. But I think sometimes we get so focused and honed in on that, that we forget that as a human being, we are holistic human beings. That's how God made us to be. We have different needs in different areas in our lives. We have physical needs, which our medical team and our kitchen team or community meals program supports. We have kind of mental needs, which our counselors are here for and our life skills. But we also have recreational needs. We need communities, we need to have fun and our mental health, our emotional health—we're all created to live in community and to play and to relax, as well as getting jobs. So, these are very important concepts that I think that sometimes people, there might be a misunderstanding or a lack of like, Oh, those are not the support that we need. But you know, when a client is feeling really stressed, like after, if they graduated, and they're really feeling stressed on their job, then what do they do? And if we have never empower or give them a platform to learn how to de-stress, then there is a chance that the client might relapse and go back into drugs because once they're stressed—like, what I mentioned about, like, a lot of people they don't go, they don't fall into addictions because of drugs but because they're trying to handle stress so it's a way to cope with difficult situations. So, when clients are presented in difficult situations at work, difficult situations with maybe family or something like that, then if they don't know how to build a support system, then where do they go? If we have never taught them that in our program, then how do we expect them to have a sustainable recovery lifestyle and to have a sober lifestyle? So, I think it is very, very crucial and I feel like there is—I'm not saying that other programs are not. They definitely are very crucial as well. But I think everything needs to kind of work together and I'm really happy and really glad that in Harbour Light, our staff team understands that. So, everybody, even if we're in a cross-functional team, we're all very supportive of each other's programs. Our counselors understand, our detox seems to understand the importance of this play program or spiritual care, and our spiritual care program really understands and work really well with everybody. And I think that essentially really is what clients need. It takes a whole team. I'm on one of our, one of our staff members that it takes a whole team, it takes a village really to support one person in their recovery journey. And I think like this play part is very essential and that.

Fabio Russo  

Because when you're in addiction, just forget about everything. You just, you have one mission, is to get what you need, you know, and you'll use any means possible to get that, right? To get the fix. Regardless of what your drug of choice is. Some, they go to the extreme, some not so much. Some are workaholics like me and just work eight days a week and do what they want, they do what they need to do after work, you know. But these experiences, it just shows you how life can be so simple and wonderful at the same time without being in there.

Kristin Ostensen  

It sounds like this played a pretty pivotal role in your recovery journey.

Fabio Russo  

Oh, it did, definitely. 100 percent, 100 percent. I'm really happy it happened. I wish it would have happened earlier. I'm not young anymore. I'm not that old. But I'm not young anymore. But hey, age is a men's invention. So.

Kristin Ostensen  

And you mentioned you haven't been able to play softball recently, but you're gonna get back into it soon.

Fabio Russo  

Next year when the tournament comes in, I promise Thomas, who was in charge of organizing this, Thomas Chang, I told them next week, I'm there.

Kristin Ostensen  

And hopefully you can bring the cup back to Harbour Light again. 

Fabio Russo  

Yeah. [laughs] Well, this time, I hope maybe middle. 

Kristin Ostensen  

Somewhere in the middle—

Fabio Russo  

Not the worst. 

Kristin Ostensen  

Not the worst. There you go. Yeah, keep your expectations reasonable. Well, thank you so much for sharing your experience with me and with our listeners. It's really been a pleasure meeting with you and hearing about your recovery journey.

Fabio Russo  

It's been a pleasure. Thank you so much for having me.

Kristin Ostensen  

Thanks for joining us for another episode of the Salvationist podcast. For more episodes, visit salvationist.ca/podcast.