YCC – Youth Centres of Calgary is a registered non-profit organization that operates a “home away from home” after school and during the summer months for at-risk kids in an underserved and low-income community in SE Calgary.

Thousands of Calgary children live in poverty and many of these kids experience trauma and dysfunction every day, in households without enough food, where they are isolated, neglected, and with adults struggling with mental health and addiction. So many parents can’t and don’t meet their childrens’ most basic needs.

All kids need easy access to a free, safe, and enriching after school experience, for their own happiness and developmentally, during a critical formative period of brain development. They need a safe place to “be a kid” to thrive in school, in the playground, and in their own lives.

YCC was created by a group of determined and compassionate Calgarians seeing an unmet need and wanting to provide vulnerable  kids what many can take for granted every day:

1. Healthy relationships with people who care

2. Secure access to good food and

3. A safe place to be a kid.

This is what they need to thrive. It’s very much borne out in the data.

The Ogden house is open every day after school and during the summer breaks, offering healthy food, sports coaching, unlimited art supplies, music lessons, mentorship, books to read, gardening and access to technology. It faces a large playground, is walking distance to school and low-income housing and is easily accessed by kids who do not otherwise have a safe space during the most vulnerable hours of the day, after school.

YCC will open the doors to a second centre in Forest Lawn in September 2024. This new oasis will follow the lead of the Ogden House by offering kids, 9-15 the safety, food, homework help, sports, art, literacy and mentorship they need and want, from adults who care about their well-being.

Each kid has promise and potential.

With your support, we discover that potential and see it fulfilled.