Our Story

In the late 1960s, a group of Montréal residents who were concerned about the local rise in drug addiction wanted to come up with solutions to this growing social problem. This grassroots committee founded Portage in 1970. The name reflects the original mission: finding a pathway around an obstacle in order to continue one’s journey. With funding from the J. W. McConnell Family Foundation, the first residential rehabilitation centre based on the therapeutic community approach opened on February 14, 1973, the Town of in Prévost, in the Laurentians.

Milestones

1973 –  A residential rehabilitation centre for adults opens at Lac Écho, Québec (Prévost)

1973 –  The Portage Foundation is incorporated

1975 –  Portage opens its headquarters on Drummond Street in Montréal

1977 –  The service and information centre opens in downtown Toronto

1983 –  A day centre opens in Québec City

1985 –  A residential rehabilitation centre for adolescent substance abusers opens in Elora, Ontario

1988 –  A day centre opens on Lansdowne Street in Toronto, Ontario (closed in 1996)

1986 –  The Portage Employment Readiness Centre opens in Québec City

1989 –  Portage moves its headquarter to 865 Richmond Square in Montréal

1989 –  A day treatment and service centre for families opens in Montréal

1990 –  The main building at the Lac Écho treatment centre in the Laurentians is expanded and renovated after a major fundraising campaign  

1991 –  A residential rehabilitation program for substance abusing adolescents introduced at Lac Écho in Québec

1995 –  A service centre opens in Fredericton, New Brunswick

1995 –  The treatment program for Mentally Ill Chemical Abusers (MICA) is launched at Lac Écho in the Laurentians, with funding from the Montréal-based EJLB Foundation

1996 –  The mother and child residential program - a first in Canada - is introduced at Lac Écho, with funding from Vidéotron and Québecor Inc.

1996 –  A residential rehabilitation centre for substance abusing adolescents and young adults opens at Cassidy Lake in New Brunswick

1998 –  The centre for young offenders opens in Miramichi, New Brunswick

1999 –  A residential rehabilitation centre and Portage Academy for substance abusing adolescents opens in Saint-Damien, Québec

2000 –  The residential centre for Mentally Ill Chemical Abusers is moved to Montréal

2001 –  A residential program for English-speaking adolescents is launched in Beaconsfield in Montréal’s West Island.

2002 –  The socio-occupational reintegration program known as MIRE (Movement for Integration and Retention in Employment) is created, in association with Fondation Lucie et André Chagnon

2003 –  30th anniversary of the opening of Portage’s first centre at Lac Écho

2006 –  The residential mother and child program is moved to Montréal and expanded

2007 –  The residential rehabilitation centres for MICA and for Mothers and Child open in Montréal.

2008 – 35th anniversary of the opening of Portage's first centre at Lac Écho 

2009 - A residential rehabilitation centre for substance abusing adolescents and young adults opens in Keremeos, British Columbia

2009 - La Ribambelle daycare opens at the Mother and Child centre

2009 - The residential adolescent centre in Saint-Damien-de-Buckland is moved to Saint-Malachie, Québec