Odyssey House Victoria - Healing for Families Torn Apart by Drug Use

"When Dad brought me to Odyssey I was just a little kid. Dad had a bad heroin problem but Odyssey sorted that out. We spent over a year there and it was the first family I ever really had. A kid couldn't ask for a better home. That was 18 years ago. Dad's been clean ever since. Now we have a business together and we're doing really well... "

Odyssey House Victoria is about giving people a fresh start in life.

For 31 years we have been providing treatment services to Victorians affected by addiction, with a strong commitment to prioritising Youth and Family Services.

Odyssey House Victoria is the only residential treatment program in Victoria (and one of only a handful in Australia) which allows clients to have their children stay with them while they undergo treatment.

Our holistic Child, Parenting and Family Support Programs help families, become families again. Parents are taught how to apply routine and new parenting skills to everyday living, while their children are supported within our Therapeutic Children's Centre.

The program has been immensely successful. Each year, Odyssey House accommodates over 550 adults and 75 children in its residential treatment and support programs. To date, hundreds of families have broken the cycle of drug use through Odyssey's programs and now lead productive lives in the community.

In 2010-11 Odyssey House Victoria is embarking on the construction of two specifically designed family units (each comprising 6 bedrooms on a site adjacent to the existing Odyssey House) to enable parents and children who come to us for help to live together in a family environment.

Energy efficient, environmentally sustainable and manufactured using mud bricks, these family units will have lasting benefits for generations to come. Not only will they allow more families to access the help they so desperately need, but they will be able to function as a family during drug treatment, with responsibility and ownership of their own living, cooking, washing and sleeping areas.

Please make a donation today to help furnish the Odyssey House Family Units. Your gift will help provide change and healing for families torn apart by drug use.

• $50 will help provide a sheet set for a single bed
• $25 will help purchase pillows for the children's' bunk beds
• $100 will purchase a cot mattress
• $250 curtains and doonas
• $500 for kitchen equipment and utensils
• $1000 will purchase a family sized fridge