A group dedicated to helping Calgary kids is finally getting its own space in Mayland Heights in northeast Calgary.
EvenStart began 20 years ago in downtown Calgary and is committed to helping children, aged three to five , from backgrounds of poverty and trauma.
On average, these children can be 70 to 90 per cent delayed in normal development which means their window of learning can be severely compromised but three years in the program can reduce that delay to just five per cent.
“Often our children come to us at three years of age. They are crawling, they are not yet walking and they don’t have language skills yet,” says EvenStart founder Ilona Boyce.
The organization is helping 187 children now but the new building means it can add 60 more kids to its list and has helped hundreds of families over the past two decades.
Christina Coffman’s granddaughter was enrolled in the program when she was two years old.
“She was in the program for three years because she has a C-8 depletion,” say Coffman. “They helped us get her into the right school and the right class.”
Sharon-Anne Coffman’s son Theo has just graduated from the program where he learned about boundaries.
“He has no fear and no concept of danger,” says Sharon-Anne.” He’s learning you can’t walk off with a stranger, not run in the middle of the road.”
Right now the organization is operating out of Currie Barracks and Boyce says in the new building the classrooms will be self-designed to meet the needs of the children.
“We’ll have separate therapy rooms that our therapists can set up to meet their needs and we’ll have outdoor playground space,” says Boyce.
EvenStart is slated to move into its new $3.4 million facility in September 2017.
