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Tag: diamonds

Help with road to recovery

Help with road to recovery

Left to right: Jill Diamond, Lauri Glotman, Leslie Diamond, Gordon Diamond and Steven Diamond, in 2014. (photo from St. Paul’s Foundation)

The Diamond family is speaking publicly about the tragic loss of Steven Diamond – a cherished father, son, brother and addictions counselor killed by fentanyl in 2016 – and honouring his life with a $20 million donation to St. Paul’s Hospital. The gift both memorializes Steven Diamond’s legacy and funds a first-in-Canada model of treatment that could transform addictions care across the country.

“We’re speaking out today for the first time because we want to save lives,” said Jill Diamond, Steven’s sister and executive director of the Diamond Foundation, when the donation was announced last week. “No matter where we turned, we never found the help that Steven needed. If he had access to the care now being developed at St. Paul’s Hospital with this new initiative, he might still be with us here today.”

One of the key factors driving substance use-related harms in British Columbia is the lack of a seamless system of care to support people with addiction. Gaps failing to connect prevention, treatment and recovery mean that people are unable to access the supports they need, when and where they need them.

The Diamond Foundation’s $20 million gift to St. Paul’s Foundation will fund development of the new Road to Recovery at St. Paul’s Hospital, a first-in-Canada model of care that aims to fill these gaps. Road to Recovery will cut weeks off waitlists and support patients to move through a full spectrum of treatment services all in one location. It will eventually house 95 beds for seamless transition between all stages of the recovery journey – from the Rapid Access Addiction Clinic through withdrawal management, in-patient recovery-focused beds, transitional housing, outpatient treatment and more. The first beds, focused on stabilization, will open in fall of 2023.

“Road to Recovery began as a vision for a full continuum of substance use care within a single setting at St. Paul’s Hospital, so that people can access the evidence-based addiction care they need, when they need it. Addiction medicine clinicians like myself know that being able to refer someone to the appropriate service and then provide follow-up care is integral to supporting their wellness, but is rarely an option,” said Dr. Seonaid Nolan, physician program director for Providence Health Care’s Addiction Program and clinician scientist with the B.C. Centre on Substance Use.

“The Road to Recovery will now make this possible,” Nolan continued. “I am so incredibly grateful to the Diamond family and foundation for their extraordinary generosity and their shared vision for a better model of substance use care. Their kindness and leadership have played a significant role in making the Road to Recovery a reality.”

The Diamond Foundation’s gift is made in honour of Steven Diamond, who is remembered as an “immeasurably giving” addictions counselor and massage therapist with a “healing touch.” While his life was punctuated with long periods of sobriety and joy, he faced a prolonged struggle with substance use disorder that saw him in and out of treatment for years.

During his most distressing moments, the Diamond family says he encountered a messy system of delays and disappointments. Finally, the 53-year-old was placed on a three-month waitlist to see a B.C. addiction psychiatrist. He was killed by fentanyl less than a week before that scheduled appointment.

“This tragedy clearly shows our healthcare system was not and is not up to the task,” said Jill Diamond. “Steven was a well-sought-after addictions counselor with expertise in the field, and family means to pay for recovery. The fact that even he couldn’t get well, despite giving his entire life’s effort, shows addiction is a disease that must be looked at medically with new models of care. That’s what today is about.”

“This donation demonstrates the power of philanthropy to drive systemic change,” said Dick Vollet, president and chief executive officer of St. Paul’s Foundation. “Despite the most difficult circumstances, the Diamond family is bravely stepping forward to help fix a broken system – and giving families hope there is a path to recovery.”

But this $20 million donation is the beginning, not the end. With the Diamond Foundation’s leadership gift in place, the provincial government has committed $60.9 million toward operating costs.

“The Road to Recovery … is crucial for the one in six people at St. Paul’s Hospital who experience substance use disorder,” said Fiona Dalton, president and chief executive officer of Providence Health Care, expressing gratitude “to the Diamonds for this generous gift. And we’re grateful to the provincial government and our healthcare partners for investing in and supporting this important initiative.”

Further, it’s hoped the Diamonds’ act of philanthropy inspires the public to donate as well.

“We want the public to take action and understand that substance use disorder is not a moral failing, nor a weakness, nor a choice,” said Jill Diamond, noting the gift is a demonstration of the family’s Jewish values. “As with tikkun olam, we hope this act of kindness helps to repair the world. As found in the Talmud: ‘Whoever saves a single life is considered to have saved the entire world.’ We have lost our beloved Steven, but we hope we can save lives and positively impact the world. This is a disease that can come for anyone – including you and those you love. While ours was not a success story, we want to rewrite history for others.”

To donate, visit helpstpauls.com.

– Courtesy St. Paul’s Foundation

Format ImagePosted on June 23, 2023June 22, 2023Author St. Paul’s FoundationCategories LocalTags Diamond Foundation, diamonds, Jill Diamond, mental health, philanthropy, Road to Recovery, St. Paul’s Hospital, Steven Diamond, substance use disorder
KDHS chai celebration

KDHS chai celebration

Left to right: Jeff Ross and Stephen Kaye, King David High School co-presidents in 2006, and Diane Friedman and Alain Guez, this year’s co-presidents. (photo from KDHS)

“At King David, Jewish memory and education intersect, creating a unique and powerful learning experience that prepares our students for a lifetime of meaning and purpose,” said King David High School board co-president Alain Guez in his closing remarks at the school’s Golden Thread Gala May 18.

The gala is KDHS’s primary fundraising event of the year, and more than 300 people filled the ballroom at Congregation Beth Israel, including some 50 King David alumni, to celebrate the school’s 18 years in its current building, at Willow Street and 41st Avenue. The school itself is double chai (36) years old, its origins being found in Maimonides Secondary School, which opened in September 1987.

“We would not be here today if Maimonides … had not started us on our path, our derech, to where we are now,” said head of school Russ Klein in his opening remarks.

“This evening is to celebrate what our community has built together,” he said. “The Diamond Foundation, who support so many of our community efforts, made King David possible with their generous support, belief in our importance, and their strong Jewish values.”

Rabbi Stephen Berger, head of Judaic studies at KDHS, noted that the event was taking place on erev Yom Yerushalayim. He compared Yerushalayim – “a holy place for all people, all people can worship G-d in this one place” – to KDHS, in that there are many different Jewish schools in Metro Vancouver but only one high school, and this one high school has to serve everybody across the religious and cultural spectrum. “We don’t always get it right, but it is a place where we can try, and respect and show love to everybody,” he said.

Event co-chairs Heidi Seidman and Sherri Wise said a few words about the school, as well. “It is important to note,” said Seidman, “that not one student is left behind and, when you look around the room tonight, you are all part of the village that makes that possible.”

As auctioneer, Fred Lee – who is a regular contributor to CBC, the Province, Boulevard and Vancouver Magazine – stressed this idea. He spoke about the Jewish community and the importance of the high school. He also helped raise funds that will go towards the school’s programs and students. There was a silent auction, a 50/50 draw and other opportunities to donate.

photo - Throughout the Golden Thread Gala, there were musical performances
Throughout the Golden Thread Gala, there were musical performances. (photo from KDHS)

The gala featured panelists Stephen Kaye, and Jeff Ross and Reisa Schwartzman, who were integral to the transition of the school from Maimonides to King David, and for taking the school from the portables it occupied on Baillie Street to having its own building on Willow. They were introduced in a video by their respective children, David Kaye and Zachary Ross, graduates of the inaugural KDHS Class of 2006.

Stephen Kaye came to Canada from South Africa, where there is a network of Jewish day schools called King David Schools. He described himself as “very passionate about Jewish education” and said, “The feedback we got from the community was that, if we could show enough commitment from parents to send their kids to a Jewish high school, there would be support from the community.” It was a hard sell, he said, but then the Diamonds bought the land at Willow and 41st.

Stephen and Sandy Kaye shlepped three kids from North Vancouver to King David in Vancouver, noted Klein, who emceed the panel discussion.

Ross spoke of studies showing that kids who have gone to a Jewish high school are more Jewishly knowledgeable and involved. And yet, he said that, in the beginning, there was almost a feeling that you were sacrificing your children to the experiment of a new high school, but that didn’t turn out to be the case. Ross gave Rabbi Mordechai Feuerstein, a co-founder of Maimonides, kudos for his efforts to keep the school going.

When the school was in “the shack” (portables) on Baillie Street, said Schwartzman, there were fewer than 60 kids and now there are more than 270. Back when she was helping bring KDHS into existence, she said she was confident this growth would happen, based on a survey that was conducted at Vancouver Talmud Torah, which would be the main feeder school into the high school. She was president of VTT at the time, and the survey of parents showed that about 50% of the kids from VTT would go to a Jewish high school if there were one.

Quality education was important to everyone, said Schwartzman, and one of the things the group behind KDHS did to ensure quality was to bring Perry Seidelman in as principal. Seidelman, who had some 30 years’ experience in teaching and administration at the time, had been contemplating retirement, but took on the principalship and held the position until 2008; he was succeeded by Klein.

In a video that featured Gordon and Leslie Diamond and their daughter Jill Diamond, as well as Class of 2023 students talking about how the school has positively impacted them, the Diamonds spoke of how proud they were of KDHS, its students, staff, and all the people who have given it its “personality” and contributed to its success. Calling the school “a labour of love for the Diamond Foundation,” Jill Diamond said, “And the most wonderful thing about King David is that it is teaching the Jewish values of tikkun olam, of chesed, of mitzvot and of tzedakah to the next generation of leaders of our community.”

Such has been the growth of the school that it added a modular unit last year, the building of which was funded by the Diamond Foundation. In her remarks with Guez, KDHS board co-president Diane Friedman spoke about how the addition is affectionately called the school’s “East Campus,” and thanked the foundation, as well as the donors who filled the modular with state-of-the art equipment, furniture and technology.

The evening came to a close with Klein and Seidelman. The former principal said he had worked at many schools before King David, and that he liked all of them – but he “loved King David.” He said he felt very proud as he looked around the room.

The gala also featured, under the direction of music teacher Johnny Seguin, the KDHS jazz band, who played at the cocktail reception – Luca Jeffery, Max Kimel, Jesse Millman and Nikki Wiseman – and performances throughout the night by singers Ella Ankenman, Kailey Bressler, Rachel Gerber, Mhairi Hemingson and Nikki Wiseman, with choreography credit given to Shai Rubin.

Gala committee members were Cyndi Ankenman, Dalia Bressler, Laura Feldman, Andrea Foxman, Nicole Ginsberg, Margaret Hemingson, Anna Herman, Ruth Jankelowitz, Joelly Simkin and Annie Simpson. Other volunteers were Lina Chernov, Kim Fisher, Jessica Forman, Simon Karsyente, Matilda Rosman Levsky, Melina Baum Singer, Gaenor Vaida, Jacqueline Wener and King David students Danielle Agulyansky, Eden Almog, Ali Fadida, Tamir Gini and Yuli Kabazo.

Format ImagePosted on June 9, 2023June 8, 2023Author Cynthia RamsayCategories LocalTags Alain Guez, Diamond Foundation, diamonds, Diane Friedman, Fred Lee, fundraising, Golden Thread Gala, Heidi Seidman, KDHS, King David High School, Russ Klein, Sherri Wise, Stephen Berger
קנדה מגנה את הפיגוע בירושלים

קנדה מגנה את הפיגוע בירושלים

 

image - Hebrew text for Oct. 31st column, Canada condemns attack in Jerusalem ....

 

 

 

Format ImagePosted on October 28, 2014November 2, 2014Author Roni RachmaniCategories עניין בחדשותTags Binyamin Netanyahu, Chaim Chesler, Christy Clark, diamonds, Irwin Cotler, John Baird, Limor Livnat, Matthew Bronfman, Mitchell Bellman, natural gas, Stephen Harper, terrorism, ארווין קוטלר, בנימין נתניהו, ג'ון בירד, גז טבעי, הפקת יהלומים, חיים צ'סלר, טרור, לימור לבנת, מתיו ברונפמן, קריסטי קלארק
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