{"id":42081,"date":"2025-03-03T09:43:47","date_gmt":"2025-03-03T14:43:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/?p=42081"},"modified":"2025-04-04T10:56:47","modified_gmt":"2025-04-04T15:56:47","slug":"from-isolation-to-entrepreneurship-christians-inspiring-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/from-isolation-to-entrepreneurship-christians-inspiring-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"From Isolation to Entrepreneurship: Christian&#8217;s Inspiring Journey"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<p class=\"lead\">At 43, alcohol had completely isolated Christian from the outside world. A former hotel general manager, he spent his days alone in his room drinking, his only connection to the outside world being the errands he ran for his mother. Following his stay at Villa Saint-L\u00e9onard and the Portage&#8217;s\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/quebec\/employment-reintegration\/\">Employment Reintegration Centre<\/a>, Christian completely transformed his life. Today, he owns his own restaurant &#8220;La p&#8217;tite souris&#8221; in Trait-Carr\u00e9, Charlesbourg: &#8220;<em>It&#8217;s incredible, this restaurant shouldn&#8217;t even exist. When I look at where I started from, from nothing, I can&#8217;t believe it<\/em>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Social isolation and loss of motivation are among the most devastating consequences of alcohol addiction. Excessive consumption can lead to a complete breakdown of social connections, job loss, and suicidal thoughts. Fortunately, with the right support and appropriate resources, it is possible to rebuild one&#8217;s life and find meaning in existence again.<\/p>\n<p>Read Christian&#8217;s full journey in Myl\u00e8ne Moisan&#8217;s article for \u00ab\u00a0Le Soleil\u00a0\u00bb: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lesoleil.com\/chroniques\/mylene-moisan\/2025\/01\/01\/une-ptite-souris-et-un-homme-4WZUXEPOVZHFFHDI6S4EZ3TTHQ\/\"><strong>Une \u00abp&#8217;tite souris\u00bb et un homme<\/strong><\/a> or in Marianne White&#8217;s article for the \u00ab\u00a0Journal de Qu\u00e9bec\u00a0\u00bb: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.journaldequebec.com\/2025\/02\/12\/fan-de-grilled-cheese-jai-trouve-la-meilleure-place-a-quebec\"><strong>Apr\u00e8s avoir touch\u00e9 le fond du baril, il se rel\u00e8ve pour cr\u00e9er les meilleurs \u00abgrilled cheese\u00bb \u00e0 Qu\u00e9bec<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Cover photo credit: Caroline Gr\u00e9goire\/Le Soleil<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>To learn more about our Employment Reintegration Program, <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/quebec\/employment-reintegration\/\"><strong>click here<\/strong><\/a><strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>To learn more about our rehabilitation programs or to contact us, <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/contact\/\"><strong>click here<\/strong><\/a><strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\t<p>Share the article:<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/?p=42081&#038;fl_builder&#038;title=From+Isolation+to+Entrepreneurship%3A+Christian%26%238217%3Bs+Inspiring+Journey\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tShare on Facebook\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/shareArticle?mini=true&#038;url=https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/?p=42081&#038;fl_builder&#038;title=From+Isolation+to+Entrepreneurship%3A+Christian%26%238217%3Bs+Inspiring+Journey\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tShare on Linkedin\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At 43, alcohol had completely isolated Christian from the outside world. A former hotel general manager, he spent his days alone in his room drinking, his only connection to the outside world being the errands he ran for his mother. Following his stay at Villa Saint-L\u00e9onard and the Portage&#8217;s\u00a0 Employment Reintegration Centre, Christian completely transformed&#8230;  <a href=\"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/from-isolation-to-entrepreneurship-christians-inspiring-journey\/\" class=\"more-link\" title=\"Read From Isolation to Entrepreneurship: Christian&#8217;s Inspiring Journey\">Read more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":42075,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4,364],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-quebec-news","category-testimonial"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42081"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42690,"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42081\/revisions\/42690"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/portage.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}