Press Releases, Publications & Presentations

Wood's Homes to treat youth in Fort Smith

July 8, 2008

CALGARY - Wood's Homes, a children's mental health treatment centre, is pleased to announce the signing of a 3-year contract with Fort Smith Health and Social Services Authority to provide therapeutic treatment for young people living in the Northwest Territories.

A facility in Fort Smith will provide treatment for nine youth (12-18) with serious mental health and behavioural challenges as a result of abuse, neglect, trauma and developmental struggles. Youth are eligible to stay anywhere from 3 days to 9 months - depending on treatment needs.

There is also a plan for community-based family care: Treatment will be provided by Wood's Homes staff who will work collaboratively with Children's Services. Our Aboriginal treatment service embraces a cultural component based on traditional teachings and is delivered by First Nations staff and elders.

Wood's Homes began as an orphanage in 1914 and today provides more than 30 programs and services for troubled children and their families throughout southern Alberta. A non-profit organization that employs more than 250 staff, this nationally accredited agency has a long-standing reputation for service excellence.

For further information about Wood's Homes please visit www.woodshomes.ca or contact:

Sylvia MacIver
Communications Manager
Wood's Homes 805 37 St. NW
Calgary, AB T2N 4N9
Direct: 403-270-1768
Mobile: 403-472-2150
email: sylvia.maciver@woodshomes.ca

WOOD'S HOMES LETHBRIDGE MAKES HEADLINES!!!

Five University of Lethbridge students learned first hand what it's like to be homeless - for five days.

The students took part in Five Days for the Homeless, a charity campaign founded in 2005 by students from the Alberta School of Business at the University of Alberta. The five-day campaign encourages university students to live "homeless" on their campus to raise money and awareness for a local charity.

The Lethbridge students picked Wood's Homes Lethbridge, and raised $7,944.50 for our youth and family programs between March 10-14.

A SUCCESSFUL CHRISTMAS CAMPAIGN - THANK YOU

$171,435 raised from Calgary Herald Christmas Fund for Wood's Homes EXIT Program

Wood's Homes was thrilled to accept a cheque, on Jan. 22, 2008, in the amount of $171,435.14 as one of 14 non-profit agency recipients of the Calgary Herald Christmas Fund.

The money will help us support our EXIT Community Outreach program, located at 117 - 7 Ave. S.W., as well as our Youth Shelter at 112 - 16 Ave. N.E.

In total, $2.4 million was raised - twice the expected amount after an anonymous donor matched the initial $1.2 million at the last minute.

"We feel truly blessed to have been chosen by your selection committee," Wood's Homes Foundation member Terry Schmaltz wrote in a thank you letter to Herald Publisher Malcolm Kirk.

The Wood's Homes EXIT program includes: A mobile support services van; a place for at-risk teens to sleep, eat, shower and rest; a medical clinic; and a place to find help and advice on ways to escape life on the street.

For more information, contact Communications Manager Sylvia MacIver at 403-270-1768 or sylvia.maciver@woodshomes.ca

Please click on one of the links below to download a PDF of the Herald coverage of EXIT, as well as articles about the Christmas Fund campaign.

• Dec. 23 Christmas Fund column - Part 1
• Dec. 23 Christmas Fund column - Part 2
• Dec. 27 article on EXIT Outreach
• Jan. 22 Christmas Fund finale - Part 1
• Jan. 22 Christmas Fund finale - Part 2
• Jan. 22 Christmas Fund finale - Part 3

Press Releases

• Central United Church and Wood's Homes - A Partnership of the Future - for Homeless Youth, March 16 2006

Publications

• Wood's Homes Strategic Plan
• Making Sense of Partnerships in Nonprofit Child and Family Service Organizations in Calgary, Alberta
• Canadian Boys: Untold Stories Conference (Aboriginal Young Men and Substance Abuse), Toronto, Ont., March 4-5, 2002
  • Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation
  • Microsoft Word Document

Presentations

• Alberta's Teachers Association
  by Jane Matheson, Ph.D., RSW; Chief Executive Officer, Wood's Homes, Calgary Alberta
• Children's Mental Health in Alberta: "We are where we've been"
  Presentation to the Ontario Children's Mental Health Providers in Ottawa, Ontario; May, 2002
  by Jane Matheson, Ph.D., RSW; Chief Executive Officer, Wood's Homes, Calgary Alberta
• Making sense of partnerships in the non-profit sector: Do we really know what we are doing?
  Presentation to the National Healthcare Leadership Conference and Exhibition in Ottowa, Ontario; June 18-21, 2000 by Jane Matheson, Ph.D., RSW; Chief Executive Officer, Wood's Homes, Calgary Alberta