Image: Volunteer in a 1982 newspaper. Read - 50 Stories Part 14 During the 80s, The Board of Directors was able to move slowly towards more of a governance-only role. Funding and fundraising were the exceptions; that remained hands-on. As noted in the 1981 Annual Report: “Financial management for the coming year will be a major challenge...
On March 17th, for the safety of our staff and volunteers, we closed our office. Within a week, we mobilized 80 staff to continue 24 hour support to our community remotely from home. Altogether, we mobilized 115 staff to work remotely from home. All of our services are still available by phone or online, including our crisis line, online chat, ConnecTeen, 211 and counselling...
Happy birthday Distress Centre! We first opened our doors 50 years ago on April 14th, 1970. We’ve changed names and locations many times over the years, but our focus on listening and volunteerism remains the same. Watch the video below to experience 50 years of answering the call for help. Distress Centre has an exciting and...
Image: This image of volunteers appeared in our 20 year anniversary publication in 1990. Read - 50 Stories Part 13 At the 1980 AGM, Jeanette McEachern was proud to say the Centre had a solid volunteer training program, a good funding base and an active and responsible volunteer group. She also remarked that “other centres wrestle with...
Distress Centre Calgary has provided 24 hour crisis support to our community for 50 years. We have responded to over 2.5 million calls, emails, chats, texts and counselling requests since April 14, 1970. And we want to be here for all Calgarians during this unprecedented global pandemic...
Image: Appeared in our 20 year anniversary publication in 1990. Read - 50 Stories Part 12 By 1980, the first location of the Drug Information Centre had turned into Bandito’s Bar. The second location, in the basement of what was known as the Old Y building, was becoming problematic due to limited space and ongoing facility issues....
Read - 50 Stories Part 11 In the early 70's, most Drug Information Centre callers were adolescent. By the early 80's, the Distress Centre/Drug Centre “found that teenage service users had all but faded out of the picture...
Distress Centre closed our doors on March 17th, but we continue to provide 24 hour phone and email crisis support, daily chat and text for youth support, and counselling to those in crisis. These services are provided by staff working remotely from home. As the impact of COVID-19 grows, call volumes to our crisis lines...
Read - 50 Stories Part 10 1980 marked the 10th anniversary of the Distress Centre/Drug Centre. At the Annual General Meeting, Chair Hilde Houlding was pleased to note that: [caption id="attachment_19667" align="alignleft" width="407"] From a 1980s newspaper.[/caption] “The month to month struggle is past, the new challenge is to maintain the vital, productive partnership of volunteers and professional...
CALGARY, Alta, March 16, 2020 – At Distress Centre Calgary, we’re closely monitoring the COVID-19 (novel coronavirus) situation and will continue to closely follow the guidance from the City of Calgary, Government of Alberta and the Government of Canada as the situation evolves. We have activated our Business Continuity Plan and have taken measure to ensure...
