CARF Accredited · Confidential · St. Catharines, OntarioWhere Experience, Expertise & Compassion Come Together
Twelve Mile brings together clinical professionals and people with lived experience to provide thoughtful, evidence-based care rooted in understanding, connection, and hope for lasting recovery.
A Home Built for Recovery
Twelve Mile Recovery is a private residential program in St. Catharines, Ontario, built around two restored heritage homes on the Twelve Mile Creek. We keep the program small, 29 people across two houses, so nobody slips through the cracks.
Twelve Mile was inspired by the personal recovery journeys of its founders. Having faced the challenges of addiction and found lasting freedom, they understand firsthand what it takes to rebuild a life in recovery. In our own recovery we found strength through boxing, Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, along with meditation, breathwork and yoga. These are tools that transformed our lives, and they are built into the program.
Why We Built This
Both founders are in long-term recovery. They built the place they needed.
In their own words ▶ watch Chris Howe & Jo DuarteCo-Founders
In their own words ▶ watch Chris Howe & Jo DuarteCo-Founders
Where Experience Meets Whole-Person Care
We believe lasting recovery requires more than treating addiction, it requires understanding the whole person. Our approach is shaped by lived experience, professional training, and the belief that healing happens through connection with the mind, body, and spirit.
Our team brings personal insight from recovery alongside training in peer support, trauma-informed care, companioning, ethics, social work, and mental health and substance use support. This foundation allows us to provide care that is both deeply compassionate and clinically informed.
Drawing from the practices that supported our own recovery, we integrate movement, mindfulness, and wellness practices such as boxing, Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, meditation, breathwork, and yoga into our programs. These tools help build resilience, self-awareness, and the foundation for lasting change.
What We’re Here For
At Twelve Mile Recovery, we are dedicated to empowering individuals and their families to conquer addiction. Our mission is to assist them in creating safer, healthier and more fulfilling lives for themselves, their loved ones, their communities, and society at large.
The practices that supported our founders’ own recovery are thoughtfully woven into daily life at Twelve Mile, with dedicated spaces for movement, mindfulness, and personal growth.
You Deserve Care You Can Trust
When you are looking for help, it can be hard to know who to trust. That is why CARF, the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities, is so important. CARF evaluates treatment programs against more than 1,500 standards covering safety, clinical care, and how well a program truly supports the people it serves.
Programs do not simply report their own standards. CARF conducts a detailed, independent review to make sure those standards are genuinely being met. When a program earns CARF accreditation, it shows a clear commitment to quality, accountability and meaningful care.
The People Behind the Program
Clinicians, counsellors and nurses — many of them in long-term recovery themselves.
-
Chris Howe
Program Director & Co-Founder -
Joanna Duarte
Program Director & Co-Founder -
Erin Kernohan
Director of Operations -
Lisa Marie Belford Howe
Admissions Lead -
Janelle Mezei
Quality & Accreditation Lead -
Susan Chudzik-Sipos
Clinical Psychologist
What Sets Twelve Mile Apart
Three things you’ll feel from the first call, and every day after.
Two Private Residences
Rodman Hall and Lake Street, two very different homes, held to one standard of care.
Clinical Care With Lived Experience
Master’s-level therapists, certified addiction counsellors and residential support workers — many of them in long-term recovery themselves. The people you meet here don’t only know the clinical theory. They know what day one feels like, because they have lived it.
Membership for Life
The app, the meetings and the door stay open, long after discharge.
What We Do.
- Answer the phone with a person, not a call centre. Many of us have made this same call.
- Ask for 72 hours of sobriety before arrival, so from day one you can focus fully on recovery.
- Keep registered practical nurses in daily care at the residences, with addiction-medicine physician oversight on every treatment plan.
- Include pharmacogenetic testing for every client, so prescribing starts from your genetics rather than trial and error.
- Treat concurrent mental health in the same plan, by the same team, not referred out.
- Keep you as a member for life. Six weeks of reintegration with the same counsellor, then aftercare with no expiry date.
Our Partner Affiliations
A network of Niagara partners that extends what we can offer, in movement, in expression, and in community.
Niagara Top Team
The largest martial arts academy in the Niagara Region, founded in 2019 and the only one locally to produce UFC and Bellator fighters. Clients train in its 7,000-square-foot facility as part of our trauma-informed martial arts program.
Visit site →
Carousel Tattoo
A renowned studio whose artists turn a blank canvas into something that speaks to a person’s story, struggles and triumphs — art as a form of expression and self-discovery in recovery.
Visit site →
Twelve Mile Tattoo
Shares more than a name with us — it shares an owner, and a belief in creating spaces where people can express themselves and begin again.
Visit site →Interested in Working With Us?
Twelve Mile is owned and operated by people in recovery. If that’s work you want to be part of, we’d love to hear from you.
See open roles →Talk to Someone.
Completely confidential, at every stage of recovery, call or text (289) 301-8852.