My son has a history of adoption trauma, prenatal substance exposure, medical trauma, and learning disabilities. At age 13/14, he got entangled with a cocaine dealer in our small rural community, and his behaviour spiralled out of control. We tried everything to get him help through the public system: counselling, psychiatry, police, medication... Nothing worked, and we were out of options. It was a living nightmare for everyone in our home. When he ran away to stay with the dealer (and the police wouldn't do anything about it!), we staged a complicated rescue mission and tricked him into going to Venture. He ended up staying with a host family whom he loved, and he made a lot of progress with his amazing counsellor. He was there for 6 months (we had to fundraise from family and community to pay for it), and at the end he thanked us for sending him there. We felt like we finally had our son back. He said it saved his life, and we know that is true. HOWEVER: Less than a month after returning home, he ended up back with the dealer, and his life has been a downward spiral over the two years since then. There are many factors involved in this. One is the fact that Venture is NOT an addiction treatment program--it is a behaviour treatment program, which means that they work on changing (reprogramming) external behaviours, not the underlying emotional issues that cause the behaviours. Because he had no access to his addictions while at Venture, my son was able to convince everyone that he was recovered, and he learned how to put on a really good act and to lie even more convincingly than he had before--all hallmarks of the disease of addiction. He was also severely traumatized by being "abandoned" at Venture. I put that in quotation marks because it's the word he uses, but it is essentially what happened: We had convinced our son to "visit" the school, and we hoped that after a tour and a conversation with staff & admins, maybe he'd decide on his own to stay there. However, as soon as we arrived, one administrator took me & my husband to a back room to do the paperwork, while another took our son to another room and informed him that he would be staying. We were not allowed to see him again, not even to say goodbye. He had already gone outside to wait for us, so they snuck us out the back door and instructed us to drive away without him noticing. When we looked back, he was sitting forlornly on a fence, staring out at the prairies. It was heart wrenching! All we could do was leave him a note, and we had no other choice. He was very angry with us, and traumatized by the abandonment, and he tells us he lost all trust for us that day. His dealer buddy quickly took advantage of that to lure him back in. He desperately needs mental health & addiction treatment now, but is afraid to try it because of his experience with Venture. Venture needs to consider that many of the kids attending are already traumatized, and their intake protocols should therefore be more trauma-informed. If I were to do it all over again, I would have insisted on at least giving my son the chance to make the decision to stay, and barring that, at least an opportunity to give him a hug and say goodbye. As it is, we spent several thousand dollars of other people's money, and I don't know if I will ever have my son back. read more

When I was 13 I was sent to this school. I'm 25 and I've only now processed the horrors that I experienced. The school is built on exploiting vulnerable parents & depriving students of basic human needs. No music, makeup, your own clothes, alone time, contact with friends, and family calls were limited to once a week for 15 mins. Venture academy systematically made the students feel out of control, so they would act up, in order to show the parents that we needed to stay their longer allowing the school to fill up their pockets. My mom has said that sending me here was the worst mistake of her life. Save your money & heart ache - send your children somewhere else.. or better yet just get them a good therapist at home. read more

My son spent nine months at Venture when he was sixteen. I often think of those nine months as a second gestation, for he was truly reborn. It was a long time, but at the end, I had my beautiful boy back. While there, he rediscovered who he was. And I finally learned how to be the parent I had always striven to be. We have a beautiful relationship since his Venture graduation: no more anger on my part, no more harmful behavior on his. He's nineteen now and has proudly celebrated three and a half years of sobriety--dated from his Venture admission day. At Venture he loved the daily Crossfit workout, which gave him the confidence to go back to the circus arts he had been dedicated to before falling into addiction at fourteen. Thanks to the staff and host parents' extra support, he managed to prepare and successfully audition for a prestigious college circus arts program while still at Venture, complete his high school studies on time, and then go straight to college once he was back home. Today he credits the communication skills he learned at Venture with his unparalleled progress in a world-class circus duo specializing in hand-to-hand, which requires a solid, trusting relationship. Our experiences with Venture were by no means perfect, but a firm commitment to the program led to its success for our family, and we are all deeply grateful. I had tried all available options to treat my son's severe addiction issues before sending him there, but nothing had helped. It was very hard for me to send my son to live far away with a family I had never met, but in the end that risk was far less than the risks he was creating for himself every day at my home with uncontrolled addiction and drug dealing. Venture is indeed very expensive, but my son's grandparents, who paid for it, often say it is the best money they have ever spent. The strong sense of self my son rediscovered and developed at Venture is also helping us deal with a new challenge. He will soon be losing me, his only active parent, to terminal cancer. I am enormously comforted knowing how solid he is in his sobriety and his commitment to being the person he wants to be. Already he is demonstrating that he has the strength and courage to handle his grief in a healthy way and get the support he might need. We are both so glad our relationship is healed and has been so loving these past years so we can simply enjoy this last bit of time together. His college graduation is in two weeks, and I know I will be the proudest mother there. read more

A few years ago our son started spiralling out of control. His affinity for drugs grew quickly and he became insatiable. After a few unsuccessful attempts at getting him back on track ourselves, we decided that he needed more help than we could give. It was a hard decision to send him away to a place that we didn't know, to live with people that we had never met, but in hindsight it was essential. Most importantly it worked for our son. Being away gave him the time to focus on himself and take ownership of his recovery. He graduated from Venture and, thanks to continuing support from professional mentors and other positive peers in the community, he is a healthy, happy young man with hope for the future. read more