Catholic Family Services is expanding in Grande Prairie.
They’re moving out of their current location in the basement of the Catholic Education centre into a new building on 102nd Street downtown.
President Rick Adair explains that they provide licensed psychological counselling on a not-for-profit basis, but are facing pressures from community growth.
“We have a pretty big backlog of clients. We need a bigger facility to be able to bring on more counsellors and more staff and run more programs. So, we are basically building an office building so that we can expand our services.”
They’ve recently increased the number of counsellors to two, and expect to grow to six in the next few years.
The current dwelling at the site near 101st Street will be demolished and redeveloped into 10 office spaces.
Construction will start by October and the new office should be open by next spring.
The organization offers its services on a sliding fee scale, with 70 per cent of its clients under the age of 18.
It operates solely on its fundraising efforts, which will have to be stepped up to support the expansion.
Despite its name, the agency considers itself non-denominational, and more than three-quarters of the people it met with over the last five years don’t identify as Catholic.
Photo: The building that will be demolished on 102nd Street and 101st Ave.