COCHRANE— The Cochrane Pregnancy Care Centre has moved to a new location off of Grande Boulevard on the second floor above Two Pharmacy.
The space officially reopened to the public on Monday (June 7) although the centre has been working with clients in need during the transition.
The new space will allow the Cochrane Pregnancy Care Centre to better care for the clientele it serves, which is rapidly expanding, said board chair Graham Hastie.
“We had been in the old space for 14 years and it was getting smaller and smaller every year. We are planning on expanding and we have been servicing Bow Valley as a whole for the last few years, so it was time to get a bigger space so we can expand our services and service the community more efficiently,” he said. “Our clients and the number of people coming to us has increased.”
The client base has expanded so much in recent years that the Cochrane Pregnancy Care Centre has satellite offices in Canmore and supports much of the Bow Valley and First Nations in the area as well.
“Nobody outside of Cochrane services Bow Valley, and there are towns and people who need support and help there too, so we’ve kind of expanded so that we can take on that responsibility,” Hastie said.
The new office is much larger, meaning there is more space for clients, client counsellors, peer counsellors and service staff.
The new space means there will be less overlap and shared spaces for the staff of the Cochrane Pregnancy Care Centre.
“The big change is we have a training room have now that we didn’t [used to have]. We kind of had a kitchen that was also a training room in the other location. We have a board room with a training facility in there, where we can offer services to our clients and to the public so we can help educate for healthier lives. We have a better waiting room and safer area if they have to bring their kids, that they can play in. It’s just a nicer, more welcoming place that will offer more safety and privacy to our clients,” Hastie said.
He added the area has many businesses surrounding it and in the same complex, which makes entering and exiting a little more discreet.
Inside, the office is an open design, but there are still private spaces available for clients who need counselling and those types of services, Hastie said.
“It’s complete privacy within there. It’s a very safe area, a welcoming area for the safety and protection of our clients,” Hastie said. “We’ve built it to make sure that we’re client-focused, and that we have the ability to have them feel safe, but also not just feel safe, but are safe and protected.”
Another big change to the facility is a permanent boutique that has many of the items new and expecting parents might need for their newborns.
“There used to be kind of a big cupboard in the other office,” Hastie said. “We opened it up and we have a corner in the office where we can offer services and supplies to our clients that are in need, such as clothing, diapers and baby chairs and those sorts of things.”
The items in the shop are all available for free to the clients the centre serves.
Hastie said the move has been made easy by many of the volunteers who helped along the way, who stepped up to donate materials and help install the different pieces of the new centre.
“It was a blessing for us,” he said.
There will be an open house in July to showcase the new facility and let the public know what has changed in the facility, but a date has not been set yet. Hastie said the date depends on the public health restrictions in place at the time.
