Children's Cottage Society

What's the history behind the Society?

The Children's Cottage Society opened its doors as a crisis nursery back in 1986. It's our flagship program. It primarily helps families, a lot of young mothers, single mothers in the community. They're looking for support when they have no other support available to them. It might be respite support. [Example] They're going in for surgery and they need someone to take care of their children. So we'll do that for them. 

How did it evolve into what it is today? 

Since then, the cottage grew up with the city, and the nine beds that we had when we started in 1986 are now 20 located here in the new family and child centre. 

You also have a facility down in the southwest?

That's in the Killarney area. It’s called Brenda's House. That's our family shelter; an emergency shelter to support families that are experiencing homelessness. It is for families that are transitioning. They've lost their home, or lost their job, and now they're looking for new accommodations. 

If somebody is suffering from abuse, do you handle that here, or do you refer them elsewhere?

There's family resource networks throughout the province of Alberta, and we're the location for Calgary West. We service 17 different communities in Calgary West, as well as Cochrane and Okotoks. 

So, to differenciate, our family resource centre is for families that need support or are new to Calgary. It's primarily for prevention rather than intervention. So it's to keep families in their homes, and parenting support if they need it. Then Brenda's House is for families who are experiencing homelessness.

When people come in and they need our resources, we do screening and evaluations to make sure that everybody that needs support gets the support that they really need. [Here’s] another example: a single mom has twins and she is just overwhelmed and maybe suffering from postpartum depression. We offer the resources or find the resources to help support her. 

Where do the clients come from? Do they knock on your door? Are they referred to you?

A lot of times, they'll knock on the door. Or, they go through child services. Or a family needs some help and support, and a neighbour tells them about us. Or they Google us. We'll sit down with them, find out what they actually need, and then set them up for their process.

How are you funded? 

We are non-for-profit, yes. And we're funded both through our government, and we have funding partners like United Way, the Calgary Homeless Foundation. We also have community support. Community support [accounts for] about 30%.

This is a beautiful building … 

Yes, 35,000 square feet. The dream started 10 years ago. Before we moved in here, we were split up. Killarney was the emergency family shelter, Brenda’s House. We had our emergency crisis shelter in Bridgeland. We had our administration offices in Kensington. And our family resource network was in Bowness. So this facility allowed us to bring three of those four under the same roof.

How about staff and volunteers? 

We have 110 employees. [Remember] Brenda’s House and the crisis nursery are both 24-7, 365 days a year. And for volunteers right now, about 325 that are listed and active in our system. One of the sought-after volunteer positions that we have: our baby huggers. Volunteers that come into the crisis nursery and they hug babies and play with babies all day.

Do you ever get late night calls from the CPS?

Yes. We get phone calls in the middle of the night from CPS saying [example] “We just did a drug raid and there's a two-year-old and a four-year-old here. And we're bringing them to you.” 

So are your resources used for more traditional things?

We had a group of teenagers here recently. They were working on their resumes and their learner's permits. They were also learning how to budget. Giving them life skills that they might not be able to get elsewhere. We also have a program for single moms or dads who don't have any family support. We will take care of the kids while they go get groceries, or even take a nap and give them some relief that way. We recently sponsored a program called - New Dads. For dads that want to learn how to become even better dads. -30-

(I recently had a great conversation with Rae Fehr, the Director of Development for the Children’s Cottage Society. He answered questions and provided information about their organization, its goals and ongoing programs!)