History
The story of St. Mary’s Home dates as far back as 1930. Les Sœurs de la Providence chose a three-storey residential building on Daly Avenue which was owned by the City of Ottawa. Their mandate was to provide custodial care for Roman Catholic teens and young adults who were pregnant and unmarried. Six months later, financial difficulties forced them to close St. Mary's Home. Interested citizens approached the Archbishop and received financial support from the Diocese of Ottawa to care for 18 resident women and 14 babies, in response to a growing community problem with protection for these young unmarried mothers and their infants during and after pregnancy.
During the first thirty years of its existence, and ending in 1963, St. Mary's Home had given care and adoption services to 1205 infants. With the formation of the Children's Aid Society in 1964, St. Mary's discontinued adoption services and re-organized its program, expanding the mandate to include admission for all young women, regardless of religion.
A broadened philosophy carried the Home into the 1960's and 70's. Care was enriched and deepened, and was interpreted to include education, counselling, employment skills, life skills training, pre-natal classes, health care and preparation to re-enter the community with added inner resources.
In 1972, with a growing demand for services, St.Mary's Home moved to a more modern facility with a 28-bed capacity on Cadboro Road in Gloucester. The Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services was approached for funding and a contractual agreement was formed, first under the Charitable Institutions Act and then under the Children and Youth Institution Act. With the onset of new legislation in November 1985, the license and funding shifted to the Child and Family Services Act.
Program Innovation
St. Mary's Home was innovative in being the first maternity home in Ontario to provide in-home private tutoring (from the Ottawa Board of Education). This program allowed residents to continue their education while awaiting the birth of their babies. (It was later available through all area school boards but ended in 1997due to budget cuts). In 1985, St. Mary’s Home opened its first after-care unit for mothers and infants, providing on-site support to the few young mothers who were keeping their babies at that time.
March 1987 marked another historic event: following a six-year struggle to resolve unmanageable maintenance difficulties, St. Mary's Home relocated to 659 Church Street in Ottawa. Les Filles de La Sagesse d'Ontario, a Roman Catholic Order, generously purchased and renovated a former 2-storey convent building. This ended St. Mary’s Home’s 54-year relationship with the Archdiocese of Ottawa-Carleton.
With a new wave of enthusiasm in its new residence, the Board and Staff eagerly turned their efforts to expanded program development and outreach. In fact, program development became quite pro-active, placing St. Mary's Home at the forefront of maternity home service development within Ontario.
In 1990, St. Mary's Home was a successful applicant for a significant grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation. This special grant provided the impetus to undertake seven major projects aimed at enhancing both professional and organizational expertise within St. Mary's Home. These projects included Board and Staff development, On-site Analysis, development of a Volunteer Program, purchase of a van to transport clients to programs and new living room furnishings. The On-Site Analysis culminated in 10 strategic organizational recommendations which the Board began studying and implementing in 1991.
Not coincidentally, in 1991, St. Mary's Home initiated and conducted a province-wide study of substance use issues among clients of maternity homes in Ontario. Made possible by the Trillium Grant, this study, called The Teachable Moment, paved the way for significant program enhancement and staff development to more effectively offer intervention related to substance use/misuse with our young mothers. The Spiral of Growth, a sequel study completed in 1994, provided guidance for revising the residential program, aimed at supporting clients in their decisions for making healthy lifestyle changes.
Collaboration with other service providers reached a new peak in 1991-92, when the Young/Single Parent Support Network (YSPSN was formalized. The five Network agencies jointly produced a landmark study of young pregnant women and young parents in Ottawa-Carleton, entitled: High Risk Parenting: A Greater Than Average Challenge. This study provided a first comprehensive picture of the lives of young single parent families and the emerging issues facing at-risk pregnant young women and young parents.
In 1994, the YSPSN was selected by Health and Welfare Canada as a successful site for funding under the national Community Action Programs for Children strategy. St. Mary's Home was selected as the Lead Agency, administering this significant multi-year grant on behalf of the Network. Suddenly, St. Mary's Home became engaged in a new level of program development and connected to a nation-wide program process. Initiatives included Kick Butt for Two a smoking cessation / reduction program for pregnant youth; and the Anger/Stress H.E.L.P. (Healthy Emotions, Loving Parents) Toolbox. These dynamic, youth-friendly resources were developed in both official languages.
A Permanent Home!
In response to challenging economic and political realities, the Board of Directors of St. Mary's Home launched the Campaign for St. Mary's in June 1994 to place the home on sound financial ground. Its goal for fiscal responsibility included raising $500,000 to purchase a permanent home for the agency and to provide for program endowment. As a result of this successful campaign, St.-Mary's Home purchased the facility at 659 Church Street on March 30, 1995, ending a 62-year history as a tenant. 100% of the funds to purchase the Residence were raised from non-governmental sources, thanks to a very committed voluntary Board of Directors.
Program Expansion Continues
In 1996, Health Canada rewarded the YSPSN's excellent track record under St. Mary's Home's leadership by selecting it as a site for the new national Canada Prenatal Nutrition Program. The local initiative, called Buns in the Oven, gained national notoriety with its creative Community Service Announcement Buns Baby, aired across the country on television.
Meanwhile, St. Mary's Home was facing severe space challenges due to the success of its creative, effective and targeted programs for young pregnant women and young parents. The mixture of offering community services within a residential site created many challenges to one of our core mandates: providing a safe shelter for residents.
In September 1997, the Board began studying the space pressures in the residence, identifying health and safety concerns that required urgent resolution. An in-depth study of room utilization was conducted. Several facilitated all-day planning sessions with Board, staff and community partner representatives were held.
The community identified the pressing need to continue the residential program and to expand services to non-resident clients, with additional attention to addressing specific needs, including:
· Young pregnant women who were francophone
· Young pregnant women who did not require residential support
· Continuing / follow-up day services post-residential care
· An extended age range for the children
In December 1999, thanks to a generous donor, the Board of Directors accepted an offer of temporary (maximum of 2 years) space at 312 Laurier Ave. E. and relocated the Executive Director and the administrative staff of both St. Mary's Home and the YSPSN to those offices (a partnership with St. John Ambulance National Headquarters). This was an interim solution, while the Board continued to explore more permanent program space options.
Program use of former offices at the home was maximized and continued to overflow. No sooner was the office move completed, when Immaculata High School and the Ottawa- Carleton Catholic School Board offered to place a Satellite Classroom with a full-time teacher in the building. The new partnership was piloted in the spring of 2000 and made permanent by the School Board the next fall, offering new hope for high school credits to young women who had previously dropped out of school.
A Royal Visitor
The Honourable Hilary Weston, Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario, visited St. Mary’s Home on June 9, 2000. On this wonderful occasion, our long-time volunteer, Anne Worsfold, was recognized for her many years of service and honoured by Ms. Weston.
The New Community Outreach and Program Centre Evolves
In June 2000, the former Notre-Dame-de-la-Joie School was placed on the market by Conseil des écoles catholiques de langue francaise du centre-est. The Board of Directors believed this property offered an ideal program space solution for St. Mary's Home because of:
· Its location at 780 Church St., just two blocks from the Home (659 Church St.) and its proximity to Vanier
· The reasonable / manageable size of this former elementary school
· The generally good condition of the building
· Its current zoning was appropriate for the intended program uses
· The valuable land associated with it, which would solve parking issues for the home and provide flexible options for future development
In July 2000, St. Mary's Home Board approached our long-time mentors, Les Filles de la Sagesse, for assistance in procuring the school property. The Sisters agreed to place an offer to purchase the property on our behalf, with a clear and mutual understanding that St. Mary's Home would be actively seeking other funds to purchase the property from the Sisters as soon as possible. From the outset, Les Filles de la Sagesse stipulated that they had no intention of retaining this property for the long term.
In late September of 2000, Conseil des école catholique de langue francaise du centre-est accepted the offer of Les Filles de la Sagesse to purchase the property for $695,000.00. The lease agreement with St. Mary's Home specified that the agency could purchase the property at 780 Church Street from Les Filles de la Sagesse for the same price they paid, plus reimbursement of all fees incurred, upon giving thirty days notice in writing, a very generous arrangement. Further, Les Filles de la Sagesse clarified that while St. Mary's Home was encouraged to utilize the building for programming during the lease, renovations to the property could not be approved while the lease was in effect because of the risks and liabilities this implied for their Order.
Over the next year, the Board of St. Mary's Home continued its approach to governments, foundations and private sources. The Campaign for St. Mary's was successful in raising some $1.5 Million, no small miracle! This enabled the purchase of the former elementary school building from our mentors, Les Filles de la Sagesse, renovation of the building to meet program requirements and the furnishing of our new Community Outreach and Program Centre, as well as a small face lift at the Residence.
Major contributors to this significant capital project included:
· SuperBuild Ontario
· Sisters of Charity of Ottawa
· Ontario Trillium Foundation
· Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services
· Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton
January 2002 brought all staff of St. Mary's Home back home to Church Street. The doors of our new Centre opened to client services on January 27. (In April 2002, the newly formed City of Ottawa changed the street name to de L'Eglise Street. ).
The official Grand Opening was celebrated on September 20, 2002 under a large tent on the grounds. Dignitaries from the federal, provincial and municipal governments joined a crowd of over 250 donors, service partners, clients and staff to mark the occasion. Students of our Immaculata Satellite High School at St. Mary's Home provided musical selections and testimonials. Major capital contributors and others cut the symbolic ribbon.
A successful recipient of one of the largest grants awarded provincially under the time-limited Ontario Early Years Challenge Fund, staff of St. Mary's Home moved forward during 2002-03 to implement the Vision Statement which had been prepared for its new Centre. Staff, Board and clients were excited about these new possibilities for young pregnant women and young parents in Ottawa.
