Children's Cottage Society

About Children's Cottage Society:

Founded in 1986, The Children’s Cottage Society of Calgary helps prevent harm and neglect to children in Calgary. Since opening, the charity has helped more than 64,000 children, with 2,909 of those children having been helped within the past year. Parents may seek help from Children’s Cottage Society for reasons including homelessness, poor physical or mental health, and family violence. The charity addresses the needs of families through five main programs: Crisis Nursery, Healthy Families, Brenda’s House, Community Respite, and Housing.

In F2017, Children’s Cottage Society’s Crisis Nursery program made up 33% of program costs. This program offers 72 hours of care for children up to 8 years old so that parents can destress or take care of a family crisis. Crisis Nursery was used by 1,452 children from 793 families during F2017. Of the families using this service, 96% were low income and 56% were recent immigrants.

The second largest program in F2017 was Health Families, making up 23% of program costs. Childhood development is critical to lifetime success, so Children’s Cottage Society helps Calgarians with children under 3 to improve as parents. Home visitors tended to 388 families, with 74% of households being two-parent and 42% recent immigrants.

Brenda’s House made up 19% of total program spending. The house provides emergency shelter for up to 14 families experiencing homelessness. The average length of stay in F2017 was 78 days, down from an average of 101 days in F2016. Of the 60 families helped during the past year, 68% identified as First Nations peoples and 78% were new to Brenda’s House.

Children’s Cottage Society allocated 16% of program spending to Housing. This broad program includes the subprograms of Rapid Rehousing, Home Links, and HomeBridge. All subprograms provide information and referrals to low-income families so that they can move to affordable housing and avoid homelessness. HomeBridge additionally provides one-time financial support to pay rent for families in crisis.

The Community Respite program made up 9% of program spending. Temporary childcare is provided as home visits, single-day daycare, or regular childcare coordinated with a licensed centre in Calgary. This program helped a total of 208 children from 151 families in the past year.

Results and Impact: Children's Cottage Society of Calgary reports outcomes specific to the programs operated. After using the Crisis Nursery, 94% of parents felt that they were better able to take care of their children, and 100% said they were more prepared as a parent.

Of participants in the Healthy Families programs, 71% improved their parenting knowledge and confidence, 99% felt they were more prepared to parent effectively, 79% improved their knowledge of child development, and 85% felt they were better able to connect with parenting resources in the community.  

Home Links successfully housed 85% of families, and 72% attended post-secondary education or found work after the program. Of the families successfully housed, 4 had their children returned from care.

From the parents who opted for home visits in the Community Respite program, 93% reported to be less stressed since the visits began, and 98% felt readier to take care of their children. After using the single-day childcare, 93% of parents felt more prepared to parent. The program arranging regular daycare placements reported that all families developed a plan for the future and were less stressed at discharge than at admission.

Financial Review:

The Children’s Cottage Society of Calgary is a medium-sized charity with total donations of $3.2m in F2017. The Government of Alberta is a major funding source for the charity – it provided funding of $2.7m in F2017, which represents 44% of total revenues. Administrative costs are 6% of revenues and fundraising costs are 6% of donations. For every $1 donated, 88 cents go to the cause, falling well within Ci’s reasonable range. Children’s Cottage Society had funding reserves of $2.8m which could cover program costs for 6 months. This indicates a need for funding.

This charity report is an update that has been sent to The Children’s Cottage Society of Calgary for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated on May 30, 2018 by Madison Kerr.