Since 1986, the Children’s Cottage Society has been providing short-term care for children during times of family crisis. More than 47,000 children have been helped through family support programs, since the Society’s inception. The Children’s Cottage Society provides Calgary’s only Crisis Nursery.
- The Children's Cottage has been operating since 1986 in Calgary.
- We first began in a small 6 bedroom home in SW Calgary, by the old Children’s Hospital
- The Child Abuse Team at the Alberta Children’s Hospital introduced the concept and Parent’s Anonymous founded the Cottage – A 24 hour Crisis Nursery
- In their judgment, the lack of relief service for families unable to cope with crisis and emergencies was a pivotal factor in child abuse. They realized a need for a service to aid vulnerable children.
- Parents Anonymous and the Children’s Cottage separate into distinct societies.
- In November 1989, we become incorporated and the Children’s Cottage Society sets out on it’s own
- The Calgary Home Builders Foundation agrees to build a new 5,000 sq. foot Crisis Nursery in 1992. The Senator Patrick Burns Foundation agrees that revenue from the sale of the original site can be put to the cost of the new land. The Province of Alberta agrees to cover the other half of the land.
- The Bridgeland site of the Children’s Cottage opens its doors in 1994, closing it’s original location.
- Our Community Respite Program begins in 1997
- Healthy Families program begins in 2002 in conjunction with the In Home Collaborative
- Child Care Respite Program begins in 2005
- In 2009, the Children's Cottage became operators of a new family shelter program, Brenda's House.