Introduced by Community Services Director Mike Christie, and assisted in her presentation by Rotarian Brent Secondiak, the Rotary Club welcomed the Executive Director of the Sanare Centre, Christina Johnson. The Rotary Club has selected the Sanare Center as the focus of our Community Service work this year, and has successfully applied for a District Grant for work on the reception area of the new location of the Sanare Center, which is in the strip mall adjacent to the Thai Orchid restaurant.
Sanare Centre (Sanare means "to heal" in Latin) will be moving to this location over the winter months, with a hopefully opening date of March 31, 2022. Sanare will own this space, and will utilize the space for their Child Advocacy Center, which is a partnership of Alberta Health Services, the Medicine Hat Police Service, the RCMP, the Prosecutors office and Alberta Child Services.
Christine explained some of the history of Centre, and it's predecessor organizations. They have been in the community for 40 years, and since 2015 have been a "standalone" charity. They have grown to 17 staff and provide both trauma and triage service, as well as a variety of educational programs. It is an unfortunate reality that they have exceed their initial projection of helping 100 children per year, and are now at a rate to more than double that number. They have an experienced and skilled interview and counseling staff.
Christine answered a number of questions about their staff, their process and the need within the community.
Much more information is available from their website, https://sanarecentre.ca .
More information and photos of the work we are doing inside the Centre will be coming in the next few months.