Family and Community Support Services (FCSS) has been operating out of the old brick school for more than 25 years, but on Feb. 28, it will be celebrating the grand opening of its new building, located at 3598-48th Avenue.
According to Debbie Wood, manager at FCSS, the new building is bigger, brighter and fully accessible.
“Accessibility is probably the big one,” Wood said. The old brick school had problems with steep staircases and was an inconvenient location for some people without a car, she noted.
“When we look at the fact that we’re up here, there are a lot of families living in Cornwall that are already coming up here for playschool or the health unit,” Wood said.
For many years, FCSS has been growing. The number of staff and the number of programs has been increasing, and space in the brick school became a problem, especially during the popular programs put on by Parent Link, which have been filled to capacity.
“We were having to turn people away lots of days when we were having activities,” Wood said.
Throughout the move in December, some programs were put on hold to give FCSS a chance to move to the new building. However, programs have been up and running again since early January, and Parent Link was running programs out of the Athabasca Regional Multiplex during the move.
With the new building, Wood says expansion will come much easier now.
“It’s going to allow us to do a lot more activities in-house and not have to take things out. (It will) make things more accessible for families that are up here,” Wood said.
A highlight of the new building is a functional counselling room, and come spring, FCSS hopes to put in a large, fenced-in, outdoor activity area.
The grand opening this Friday will run from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and will include a ribbon-cutting ceremony followed by refreshments.
