Alberta Adolescent Recovery Centre is a 2-star charity that has low financial transparency. It has a B+ results reporting grade, which is above average. For every dollar donated to the charity, 65 cents are available to go to the cause. Before you give, read Charity Intelligence’s report.

Founded in 1990, Alberta Adolescent Recovery Centre (AARC) treats adolescents suffering from addiction. AARC’s view is that alcoholism and drug addiction is a disease. It states that this disease is irreversible once someone has it and it must be constantly managed. AARC believes it is important to also provide support for the family and loved ones of addicts.

The AARC Treatment program is for youth aged 12-21 who are diagnosed with substance use disorder. Clients are most often admitted by concerned parents or guardians. AARC Treatment follows the 12-Step Model, which is also used by Alcoholics Anonymous. Charity Intelligence calculates that the charity spent $2.2m on its program in F2023.

Before admission, the client is assessed by members of the AARC clinical team and an external addiction expert. In the first phase, for six days a week the client receives peer and clinical counseling. During this phase they attend a treatment centre and stay with another sober client’s family. Over the process, the client moves back in with their family, and eventually takes in first-phase clients to their family home. If successful, the youth go back to school or work. For AARC program graduates the median length of stay was 277 days.

AARC states a core principle is that nobody should be turned away for financial reasons. The charity reduces fees based on need for those on lower incomes. AARC states that treatment costs are more than $300 per day, but the average fee paid per day by families is $120.

AARC does not disclose the number of clients it works with each year. The charity states that it has treated over 630 youth since its founding, although this statement has been on the charity's website since at least 2021.

Alberta Adolescent Recovery Centre is not financially transparent as its financial statements are not available on its website.

In F2023 AARC received cash donations and special events revenue of $2.5m. Administrative costs are 18% of revenues (excluding investment income). Fundraising costs are 17% of donations. This results in total overhead spending of 35%. For every dollar donated, 65 cents go to the cause. This falls outside Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending. This is a considerable increase from F2022 and F2021, where overhead spending was 26% and 16%, respectively.

In F2023 AARC spent $2.2m on its programs, which is 103% of its revenue. In F2023 it had a deficit of $970k.

AARC has $4.4m in reserve funds. This can cover 196%, or 2 years of its annual program spending. AARC has total investments of $4.2m. In F2021, investments were $35k. This increased to $4.5m in F2022 primarily due to a litigation settlement in the amount of $3m.

This charity report is an update that has been sent for review to Alberta Adolescent Recovery Centre. Changes and edits may be forthcoming. 

Updated on June 3, 2024, by Grady Simpson.