Children’s Aid Society of Toronto’s Scarborough branch.
The residence at the Children’s Aid Society of Toronto’s Scarborough branch was torn down in July to make way for an expansion and new parking lot, which should be completed by March.
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After 50 years of delivering services to children and families in Scarborough, changes are coming to the Children's Aid Society of Toronto's largest branch.
The youth group home, which stood for decades on Kennedy Road, has been demolished and in its place the Scarborough office will be expanded with a new access centre, a larger play area and new, modern residence with six beds for youth.
"We're really happy," said branch director Phillp Howe. "With more space, more parking and a larger play area we're hoping to open the door more to the general community."
The Scarborough branch is the CAS' largest in Toronto. In the 1990s the branch nearly doubled in size due to the change in demographics in the area and the increase in child welfare funding in the province.
"We've probably needed to expand our facility for seven or eight years," Howe said.
The 7,200-square feet extension is being funded by Infrastructure Canada, the Province of Ontario and the Children's Aid Foundation for a total of $1.89 million.
The project includes an extension to the east side of the existing building with a new access centre where family visits take place. Today the 700 families served out of the branch have to visit the children in a small room.
"It's cramped," Howe said. "People can sometimes be under a lot of stress. It can be made worse in a small space."
The new access centre will include more spacious rooms, a kitchen, a walkout to a courtyard and a play area.
The demolition of the adjacent 40-year-old group home has also made room for a much needed larger parking lot for the busy branch.
While the changes are desperately needed to meet the needs of the crowded branch, the closure and demolition of the group home closed a long chapter for many staff and youth.
The building held a lot of positive memories for Lori Johnson who worked there during the '80s. Working in the 32-bed residence was one of her first jobs after college and her first at CAS. It was also the place where she met her husband, a fellow child and youth services worker. Driving by and seeing it gone for the first time was strange.
"It was bittersweet because it was time for that building to go...but certainly it was a funny feeling because it does hold a lot of special memories for me," Johnson said.
The residence was made up of four different houses with eight children living in each. It wasn't an easy job as these were children and youth with behavioural problems or who had experienced a lot of trauma in their lives, but Johnson enjoyed the work.
"They were children who required more support than could be provided in traditional foster care," she said. "We did our best to normalize the setting as much as possible."
The staff organized birthday parties, a Christmas lunch, took the children trick or treating, and the children participated in outside activities such as sports or Brownies.
"We did a lot of things that any child would do," Johnson said.
She carries a lot of memories from her time there including going all over the city looking for a Care Bear, which were the hot item that Christmas and sold out everywhere, because that's what one little boy really wanted and she wanted to make him happy.
"It was hard to say goodbye to a lot of the kids," she said.
The last of the youth moved out in June before the building was torn down last month. Work is to begin on the expansion shortly and should be finished by March.