The Alberta Adolescent Recovery Centre, or AARC, is a drug rehabilitation centre for adolescents and family members located in Calgary, Alberta. AARC specializes in treating young people suffering from drug addiction and alcoholism, and takes in clients who have been thought of as being too far-gone for recovery. The AARC program is a multifaceted drug treatment program that uses twelve-step recovery processes, peer pressure, family and group therapy. A survey conducted by AARC found they had an 80% success rate, and that former addicts can permanently abstain from using drugs or alcohol following treatment at the centre. Another study found that the "AARC program is a unique model for comprehensive, long-term adolescent substance use treatment with a high rate of treatment completion (80.5%)." AARC is licensed as a Residential Addiction Treatment Service Provider under the Mental Health Services Protection Act in the Province of Alberta. AARC uses an external accreditation service to give an independent evaluation of its governance, practices and outcomes and has a contract with Canadian Accreditation Council of Human Services (CAC). History AARC was established in Calgary, Alberta in 1991. AARC was originally funded through a collaborative effort between the Rotary Club and the Alberta government, recognizing the need for a long-term youth treatment centre in Alberta. The AARC program (formerly called KIDS of The Canadian West) was modeled off of the KIDS Of North Jersey program which shut down in 1998 after losing state funding due to abuse allegations and tax fraud. Vause was initially employed as the executive director, and still serves in that position. He is directly overseen by the board of directors, who are a collection of business leaders and professionals from the Calgary community. Dean Vause worked at KIDS with Miller Newton for a period of time before being hired by Miller Newton in 1989 to set up a Canadian branch of KIDS to be called KIDS Of The Canadian West. A gala was held at the grand opening of Banker's Hall to raise funds for KWC, which would later change its name due to the now negative association with Miller Newton (incidentally KIDS of North Jersey would be shut down just a month after this gala was held). Vause abandoned the KIDS title and quietly implemented the very tactics that the Department of Human Services requested KIDS change before ultimately shutting that program down. Peer counselors are debated to be effective