Jacqueline Hoffman (left), the CEO of Prairie Sky Recovery Centre in Leipzig, is joined by close friend and Alberta resident Camille Box at the CBC Saskatchewan Future 40 gala event held Nov. 15 at the Sheraton Cavalier Saskatoon. Hoffman was named as one of this year’s Future 40 honourees.
Kenneth Brown
of The Crossroads
Each year a CBC Saskatchewan program recognizes 40 future leaders in the province, and one of this year’s honourees is from west central Saskatchewan.
The CBC Saskatchewan Future 40 program celebrates the leadership and contributions of 40 people across the province who are under the age of 40. The program is in its sixth year, so a total of 240 people have been recognized thus far.
Jacqueline Hoffman, the CEO at Prairie Sky Recovery Centre in Leipzig, is one of the future leaders to make the top 40 this year. Several people from west central Saskatchewan have made the list in the first five years of the CBC program, but Hoffman is the only honouree from the region in 2018.
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According to a CBC spokesperson, more than 100 people were nominated for this year’s Future 40 program. The 40 successful future leaders were invited to attend a gala event on Nov. 15 held at the Sheraton Cavalier Saskatoon.
The CBC spokesperson said program officials use a scoring grid to determine the 40 honourees from the year’s list of nominees. The criteria used for the Future 40 scoring grid includes leadership, difference making, uniqueness and innovation, impact, overall impression and contributions in an area of expertise.
Hoffman, who lives on an acreage near Biggar, has been the CEO at Prairie Sky Recovery Centre since 2016. The recovery centre was known as Leipzig Serenity Retreat until she re-branded the centre after taking over as CEO. The centre was established by Hoffman’s mother, Ardyth Wilson.
The centre used to be a boarding school called Notre Dame Convent until it closed 1969, and approximately $1 million in renovations have been made to the building since it was acquired by Wilson in 2008. Hoffman held other roles at the centre before she became CEO.
Hoffman said she was nominated by a friend and a write up submitted by her nominator recognizes her community contributions. She has been involved with Friends of Leipzig board, Biggar Gymnastics board and 300 Fisher Parent committee for Cadets.
The nominator states that Hoffman has helped to stabilize the centre’s finances and develop eight new programs for the clients. The centre, a place where people go to achieve sobriety, won the 2018 Better Business Bureau Torch Award for Ethics and was nominated for a Priority of Focus ABEX award.
Not all Future 40 honourees know who nominated them and Hoffman said she spoke to a couple of fellow honourees at the gala event that did not know their nominators. She noted that she came across the Future 40 program in 2017.
Hoffman said she mentioned the program to a friend because she believed it was a good initiative by CBC Saskatchewan, and that same friend ended up nominating her in 2018. The program recognizes various contributions and she said there is a lot to recognize.
“There are a lot of people in Saskatchewan who are making significant differences in so many different areas,” she said. “It’s not just in business, but we’re talking community leaders and extreme volunteerism and charity events.”
She noted that it was an honour to be recognized alongside the other Future 40 leaders in Saskatoon. The event included a scavenger hunt, she said. There were clues on cards about each honouree and people went around the room to locate different people, so it helped the honourees to get to know each other.
Hoffman said it was awesome to learn that she had made the cut for this year’s list and she was happy to receive the honour. The new Future 40 member said she tries to help out in her community, but her recognition focuses on advocating for more mental health services.
“What it really reaffirmed for me was the fact that, even in my own way through advocacy for addictions services, I’m making some sort of impact in the province,” she said, adding she has ample time left to continue making an impact.
She said her biggest honour is getting to lead the recovery centre into the future while continuing her advocacy work for mental health and addictions, but one of her main goals is to serve her community. Future 40 honourees are showing their passion for their causes and it was nice to be part of this year’s group, she added.
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