The lab is pleased to announce that Dr. Tonia Nicholls and Dr. Amanda Butler, as Co-Principal Investigators, received a Canadian Institutes of Health Research | Instituts de recherche en santé du Canada (CIHR) Project Grant! CIHR Project Grants are extremely competitive federal grants designed to support multi-year projects that show the most promise for advancing Canadian health-related research.
The ~$1.3 million award will allow Dr. Nicholls, Dr. Butler, and their Co-Investigators to fund a 5-year evaluation of the Guthrie Therapeutic Community at the Nanaimo Correctional Centre.
With this Project Grant, they will conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the first and only prison-based Therapeutic Community (TC) in BC, the Guthrie Therapeutic Community (GTC), at the Nanaimo Correctional Centre. The TC model contrasts traditional, punitive approaches to incarceration, instead emphasizing the responsibility of the institution, community, and self in one’s recovery. TCs are small, cohesive groups where residents are invested in their recovery, the success of other residents and have responsibilities in the unit’s operation and decision-making, building essential life skills (social, leadership, autonomy, work ethic). TCs provide an environment for belonging, relationship-building, agency, self-development, and personal responsibility. They work from the philosophy that recovery is achieved by changing one’s lifestyle, identity, and self-defeating behaviours through community (referred to as community-as-method). Rather than deficit-based (i.e., ‘fixing’ what is wrong) TCs are strengths-based and aim to identify and harness individual assets.
This project aims to evaluate the efficacy of the TC model at GTC and identify what works, for whom, and in which circumstances. Specific objectives include: (1) analyzing the effects of GTC on health and wellbeing outcomes and criminal justice outcomes; (2) assessing the mechanisms of change associated with GTC to inform our understanding of substance use recovery and crime desistance; and (3) exploring the experiences and perspectives of TC clients and staff to identify gaps and opportunities for enhancing prison based TCs.
Dr. Nicholls and Dr. Butler are excited to be working with BC Corrections, John Howard Society of Victoria, and an exceptional team of Co-Investigators* who bring a diverse range of expertise and experience to this evaluation.
*Alicia Nijdam-Jones, PhD, Margaret Erickson, Leigh Greiner, Fiona Kouyoumdjian, Katherine McLeod, Lisa Monchalin, Christian G. Schütz, and Jason Sutherland