Discovery House

About Discovery House:

Founded in 1980, Discovery House helps women and children in Calgary who are victim to domestic violence and need a place to stay. Domestic abuse is a rising problem in Calgary – the Calgary Police Service reported a 10% increase in domestic violence calls and a 24% increase in calls involving physical violence over 2015. Discovery House runs a Shelter program and a Community Housing program so that women and children can live safely. The charity reports that it sheltered 672 women and children in Calgary in 2015.

Discovery House’s Community Housing Program helps women and their children by first placing them in long-term, stable rental housing and ensuring their basic needs are met. Discovery House then works with the families by assigning them a support team consisting of a Case Manager, a Mental Health Specialist, a Child and Youth Support Specialist and a Housing Liaison. Each family can choose how much support they want to receive from the team. Discovery House reports that it helped 168 adults and 362 children through this program in F2015.

Discovery House’s Shelter program has 19 shelter apartments under 24-hour security. Women and their children can stay in these apartments for up to one year. Ci calculated that Discovery House sheltered 142 women and children through this program in F2015.

Discovery House’s clients can access therapeutic workshops, support groups, and child counselling services. In 2015, Discovery House ran 37 therapeutic workshops and 18 support sessions for its clients. It also reports starting 6 new programs in 2015, including art and play therapy and yoga for people with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Financial Review:

Discovery House is a big-cap charity with donations and special events fundraising of $2.8m in F2015. Administrative costs are 6% of donations and fundraising costs are 8% of donations and special events. $0.14 of every donated dollar goes toward overhead costs, which falls well within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending.

Discovery House has funding reserves of $4.6m, of which $1.2m are endowed. Non-endowed funding reserves can cover 79% of program costs, indicating a funding need.

Updated on August 26, 2016 by Katie Khodawandi.