Alberta Adolescent Recovery Center (AARC)

AARC is located in Alberta, Canada.

It is a descendant of Straight, Inc.

Between June 1988 and February 1989, Straight, Inc. operated the Family Service Center in Edmonton.

During this time, F. Dean Vause was reportedly a guidance counselor at North Battlefield High School.

Miller Newton, former Clinical Director for Straight, Inc. was operating his own Straight-like program, Kids of Bergen County in New Jersey.

Due to the volume of Canadian teens recruited from Calgary into his New Jersey program, Newton opened Kids of the Canadian West--a support center to aid kids who had been through Kids of Bergen County.

Newton reportedly hoped to turn Kids of the Canadian West into another franchise treatment program like Straight, Inc..

In 1989, Vause accepted a position at Kids of Bergen County, under the supervision of Miller Newton.

Also in 1989, the CBS news program West 57th Street aired a damaging segment on Kids of Bergen County, alleging many cases of abuse and fraud.

Newton then changed the name of the facility to Kids of North Jersey.

In 1990, Dean Vause was offered the position as director of Kids of the Canadian West.

In August 1990, Bergen County prosecutors entered Kids of North Jersey, investigating allegations of child abuse and false imprisonment.

At that point, there were 40 Canadian children in Kids of North Jersey, costing the Canadian Government $25 per day per child for a daily total of $1,000.

When Canadian authorities learned that they had not been paying for psychiatric or physician services - some $250,000 later - those payments stopped.

In February 1992, Dr. Vause founded AARC, with the help of $1 million raised by the Rotary Club.

Norman Haines, Communicator and Manager in Canadian Broadcasting for 25 years, served as principal consultant on the creation of the AARC.

AARC, like Straight, Inc., was reportedly opened in an industrial building located in a warehouse district.

Brian Neil, a former client of Kids, worked as a counselor at AARC, even though he reportedly had no training.

Brian Neil hung himself in 1996.

In 2003, the Canadian Television Network (CTV) was allowed to film inside AARC.

Survivors of Straight, Inc. who have viewed the footage agree that the facility is very similar, if not identical, to Straight.

Documents

Many of our documents are PDF files and require the Adobe Acrobat Reader. This link will take you to the Adobe download page: Get Adobe Acrobat Now!

Comparison of Kids and AARC, by Phil Elberg, Attorney at Law

ISAC Preliminary Report

Accreditation Document

Endorsements by Health Dept. and Gov. Officials

Program Overview

Structured Day

For more information about Straight, Inc. and Miller Newton, please visit our archives.

For more information about Kids, please visit Kids of North Jersey/Bergen County

Survivors

One of the best ways you can help prevent abuse is to share your story.

If you would like to submit a statement about your experience, use the form below.

Federal Declaration Form

If you have documents and are willing to share them with us, please contact us immediately.

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