About Us

In 1914, Reverend George Wood said “yes” to a soldier who asked him to care for his two young children so he could serve overseas. He pledged to look after Willie and Mary while their father went to war.

We work on 3 large campuses in Calgary - in Bowness, Parkdale, and Inglewood. We also work in several communities across Calgary and provide services in Lethbridge, Strathmore and Fort McMurray, Grande Prairie, Cold Lake, and Lac La Biche.

It is true there is similar work being carried out, but each agency specializes in meeting different needs of the community. These specialized services fill vital gaps in the social support system. The diversity and immediate response ensure that very difficult and often complicated social needs are addressed with minimal bureaucratic delay.

Some of the programs at Hull Services are referred to as secure services (confined programs). Some youth find greater success in these secure settings while others are better served in non-secure settings such as Wood’s Homes. We work with Hull Services and several other agencies with a common goal to ensure all vulnerable youth get the best treatment possible.

Partnerships are vital to the success of our programs. We have informal and formal partnerships with many groups including the Calgary Board of Education, Calgary Homeless Foundation, Alberta Health Services, United Way, Association of Community Services, University of Calgary, and many others. For a list of our formal partnerships, click here.

Wood’s Homes is also engaged in multiple levels of advocacy. This includes ongoing liaison will government, community groups and organizations including ALIGN, the Child Welfare League of Canada, ALIGN, the Association of Fundraising Professionals, the Calgary Chamber of Voluntary Organizations, and others.

Yes, we are accredited by Accreditation Canada. An external review takes place in 3- or 4-year cycles and is a time to focus on quality improvement. The process helps healthcare organizations improve quality and safety by shining a light on processes that work well, and those that need more attention. The result is safe, high quality client-centred care.

Yes, that was the name of our organization at one time, but we have been non-denominational for the past few decades. We officially removed the word Christian from our formal name in 2007.  

Calgary children, teens, young adults, and their families. However, we also work with clients from across Alberta and some from across Canada.  

Approximately 150 young people live with us on any given day; 32 typically on each of our Calgary campuses. We provide 40+ programs and services which fall under these pillars:

• In-Home & Counselling Services
• Therapeutic Campus Care
• Foster Care, Therapeutic Foster Care, Parented Group Home
• Community Group Care and Specialized Group Care
• Housing & Hub Services
• Learning Centres

Most of the youth who live with us are 12-18 years old however we work with children from newborn to 24. Our U12 Program is for children under the age of 12, and our community programs work with young people 18-29.

Some clients do. Most of our clients are simply experiencing tough times – they have come to us with backgrounds of abuse, neglect, and trauma. The youth who live with us are not in secure treatment – they have the freedom to leave campus, but we are still their home.

We are one of the largest child and family-serving agencies in Western Canada, with 500+ staff and 100 volunteers. Our average annual operating budget is $40M.  Each year, we work with more than 20,000 children, youth, and families (from across Canada) and respond to 15,000 crisis calls.

No. Youth from outside the province are here under independent contract. Their respective governments pay for their treatment and their education costs as well.

The cost varies depending on the program or service, but it is approximately $600 per day. This amount covers all the expenses for the youth, everything from food, shelter, clothing, and education to specialized mental health treatment services. These costs are approximately 1/3 the cost of hospital-based treatment programs.

Wood’s Homes is an independent, non-profit, community-owned, and governed agency. Wood’s Homes has three Boards of Directors:

1. Wood’s Homes (OpCo)
2. Wood’s Homes Society (PropertyCo)
3. Wood’s Homes Foundation

The Wood’s Homes Society is the parent company to Wood’s Homes and the Wood’s Homes Foundation and is responsible for the property and financial assets of the organization.  

The Boards of Directors are supported by multiple Board committees that include community advisory members with significant professional credentials and experience in the sector.

Our Chief Executive Officer is Bjorn Johansson who has been with the organization for more than 30 years.

We are an independent, non-profit organization. Our operating funds are drawn principally from contracts and grants with provincial governments, including the ministries of Alberta Children’s Services; Alberta Health Services; Persons with Developmental Disabilities; School Boards; and the Ministry of Health. Some programs use a fee-for-service model with a variety of funding sources. Any discretionary funding for new or innovative programs is raised within the community, via the Wood’s Homes Foundation. Capital funding is almost entirely raised from private and community sources.

Wood’s Homes operates on a stable financial structure. We do not operate on a financial deficit model, nor do we carry long-term debt.

We are comprised of three key elements: Wood’s Homes, Wood’s Homes Foundation and Wood’s Homes Society. A key mandate of the Foundation, which was established in 2000, is to establish and maintain reserves to ensure the short and long-term financial strength of the organization.

Wood’s Homes established a Research Department in 2001 to investigate program effectiveness and determine the need to revise, update or terminate programs.

We have established a strong reputation for our work developing frameworks for outcome. Outcome measures include:

• Measurement of mental health improvement and reduction in risk issues
• Sustained quantitative evaluations while a child is in care
• Parent/caregiver satisfaction assessments
• Family capacity measurement and improvement

Results are reported to an Advisory Committee of professional practitioners and to the Governing Board bi-annually.

Wood’s Homes also shares its success with the greater community. In 2016, Wood’s Homes and the University of Calgary partnered to establish the Wood’s Homes Research Chair in Children’s Mental Health to enhance mental health treatment services in the community. We are proud to be working with Dr. Angelique Jenney, who came to us from the Child Development Institute in Toronto. The Chair works to apply theory to practice.

Wood’s Homes has maintained its commitment to providing services to meet the changing needs of our communities. We know that:

• Children are coming into care at increasingly younger ages with more complex and mysterious mental health conditions.
• Mental illness is increasingly threatening the lives of our children. The suicide rate for youth in Canada is the third highest in the industrialized world with suicide being one of the leading causes of death in youth ages 15 to 24.
• It is estimated that 10-20% of Canadian youth are affected by a mental illness or disorder – the single most disabling group of disorders.
• Societal awareness of mental health problems has increased, especially following the global pandemic. People are paying attention more than ever before.
• People are now reaching out for help sooner and more often, as therapy and counselling options become more readily accessible. Wood’s Homes offers counselling via no charge walk-in services, by phone, text, LIveChat and e-therapy.