Kakawis Family Development Centre Society is dedicated to a holistic approach to family recovery, healing and growth. We provide an environment for physical, emotional, mental and spiritual healing. Recovery from alcohol and drug abuse and other addictive behaviours is a life long process and a permanent responsibility of each participant.

Kakawis Family Development Centre offers a program that promotes a balanced lifestyle and a renewed sense of cultural identity and pride to First Nation Families whose lives have been affected by alcohol and/or drugs.

Kakawis Family Development Centre is a First Nations Family Alcohol and Drug Treatment Centre. We have been in operation for over 30 years. We are one of four Family Centres in Canada and one of two in British Columbia. We are located on Meares Island a twenty minute boat ride from Tofino, which is on the west coast of Vancouver Island.

Our program has changed over the years and at present; we have six family sessions per year. Each session is 42 days. We have 3 components to our treatment program, adult, children and youth (K – 12), and toddlers up to five years of age.

We have four adult counsellors who offer education, individual, couple and family counselling. The education consists of such topics as alcohol and drugs and their effects, other addictions, grief and loss, communication skills, anger management, co dependency, residential school issues and traumas, spirituality, recreation and family fun time, AA meetings, community dinners, cultural and traditional teachings, healing ceremonies and sweat lodges.

The children and youth have a full time school teacher and teacher’s aide. These two positions are funded through School District # 70. The children and youth are requested to bring their math and language arts when they attend. The children and youth also learn about the effects of alcohol and drugs, grief and loss, anger and bullying. We are connected to the Success Maker program which is widely used in the school system. Children and youth spend supervised time at the gym and on the beach and they also participate in family fun time. We have a Child and Youth Therapist who works two days a week and will counsel children with parent approval.

Our toddler program is for children from babies up to five years of age. They learn the basics, such as colors, story telling, trust building, how to play and share.

We are primarily funded by Vancouver Island Health Authority (VIHA) and Health Canada – First Nations, Inuit Health Branch. We are seeking funding for other projects and these will be posted on our site when they become available. We are a non profit Society and we operate with a Board of Directors that consists of 9 Board Members from various areas of Vancouver Island, 3 Elders and one appointed position. Our Board of Directors meets on a regular basis and has several committees that operate within the Board. Our office consists of an Executive Director, an Administrator, an Intake Coordinator and a Bookkeeper. We have a Maintenance Supervisor and two Residential Care/Maintenance Workers.

We are located on the rugged West Coast of Vancouver Island of British Columbia. Kakawis is located on Meares Island, 15 minutes by boat from the village of Tofino.

As you can imagine, this leaves the treatment centre very quiet and isolated. There is a gravel road that leads from the dock to the centre… not much traffic around here!

The centre is surrounded by forest and overlooks a calm sandy bay, and is a 20-minute walk from a lake.

There is plenty of wildlife to view here on the island. We regularly see eagles, wild cows and the occasional bear! We also have "Yukon" and "Bart," the resident dogs.