New Child and Family Centre Moves Ahead

We have broken ground!

On April 8th the next chapter in the Children's Cottage Society’s (CCS) history officially started when 20 children on mini diggers broke ground on the site of our new Child and Family Centre.

The sun shone over the new site in Montgomery as more than 100 guests, joined with the staff and board of CCS in this momentous celebration. It’s been 10 years of dreaming, and the support we have received in the last year, since launching our public campaign, has been truly amazing. Having so many of our donors, partners, funders, staff and volunteers join us was truly special.

Our Board President Dr. Janice Heard stated, “This project has been more than 10 years in the making. The Children’s Cottage Society has watched demand for their Crisis Nursery in Bridgeland grow beyond capacity over a number of years. As an organisation we could choose to ignore the issue and just concentrate on what we could do, or we could provide a solution. We chose to be the solution. Calgary has changed so much since the Children’s Cottage Society opened its original crisis nursery in 1986 with six beds. The city has tripled in size and the need for a safe place for children when their families are in crisis has more than tripled. Over the last few years we have been turning away more than 1,900 children a year from our current fourteen-bed nursery in Bridgeland. This new facility, along with our existing nursery, will enable us to provide care for the children we have been turning away.”

Having 20 children break ground was a symbolic gesture as the new centre will be able to provide emergency shelter for 20 children a night. It was quite the sight to see 20 little diggers starting the work on the ground today. Construction is estimated to take 18 months and the Cottage hopes to be opening its doors to welcome children in the fall of 2023.

The new Child and Family Centre will be a 35,000 square foot, three-storey building containing a new Crisis Nursery, a Family Resource Centre, that is currently in Bowness, along with a Child Development Centre, Volunteer rooms, administration offices and some truly special rooms they are waiting to reveal including an Elder Room for ceremony. The total cost for the building is $25.4million and to date CCS has raised $15.2 million. The Caring Together Campaign launched in June 2021 and aims to raise the remaining $10 million over the next eighteen months. Patty encouraged people to learn more about the campaign on their website, along with following social media to see the construction project take shape. We are so excited to finally see this dream take shape, we want everyone to be involved in the Caring Together Campaign and help us provide support to 1,900 more children a year.

Guests at the ceremony included MP George Chahal, Minister of Child Services; Rebecca Schulz MLA, Mayor Gondek and Krista Hunter, Elder from Stony Nakoda Nation.

We will be sharing our progress as construction ramps up, please consider supporting this campaign as we strive to provide shelter for all children that need it. We would not have been able to get this far without our amazing supporters and donors, thank you!

 

$2  million grant from the Provincial Government of Alberta

We are thrilled to announce that we have been awarded $2 million through the Provincial Government of Alberta to support our Caring Together Campaign, raising funds to build our Child and Family Centre here in Calgary.

We are so grateful for the support we have received from Minister Rebecca Schulz and Children’s Services.

We still need to raise $10 million for the new centre. For more information on how you can support our future, please click HERE.

May 29, 2022

Calgary Downtown

The Children's Cottage Society's (CCS) team will be running or walking 5K at the 2022 Calgary Marathon in-person or run the virtual race from May 29 - June 28, 2022. If you are unavailable to race, there is the option to join our cheerleading team.

To run or donate to CCS, please click

Run

June 5, 2022

4th Street & 17th Avenue SW, Calgary

The Children's cottage Society will be participating at the 2022 Lilac festival from 10 am to 6pm. Please come visit our booth.

 

 

June 18, 2022

7930 Bowness Road NW, Calgary

We will be partnering with Trellis to provide some fun activities and snacks for kids of all ages! You can find the fun in the green space behind the parking lot of our Bowness location. Please note that no registration is required. Just come and have fun!

 

 

Birdies for Kids

March 1 - August 31, 2022

Donation Period

Children’s Cottage Society is excited to be once again a participating charity in Shaw Birdies for Kids presented by AltaLink. We receive 100% of donations to Children’s’ Cottage Society, which will go directly to supporting our “Caring Together' Campaign. This is a great way to make your donation make even more of a difference. All donations made to CCS through this event are matched 30%.

If you will like to multiply your impact and support Children’s Cottage Society, please click HERE

 

We are always in need at our program sites. Please check our Spring Wishlists for the Crisis Nursery, Brenda's House and the Family Resource Network if you are able to help.

Wishlists

Thank you for giving!