Our Rotary Heritage
KidsAbility-Centre for Child Development, formerly known as the Rotary Children's Centre, was founded and continues to be supported by Rotarians. We acknowledge with pride, the special role Rotarians have played in helping local children with disabilities to achieve their potential in life and we honour our Rotary heritage with this signature line - "Founded and Supported by Rotarians Since 1957".
History of the Organization
The Rotary Club of Kitchener-Waterloo began in 1922 and immediately dedicated itself to serving "crippled children". Club members organized local medical clinics, hosted Christmas parties and fishing derbies, transported children to Toronto hospitals and operated local fund-raising events to buy necessary equipment and pay for medical services.
In the early 1950's, local Rotarians undertook the challenge of developing a treatment centre to serve local crippled children. They established the North Waterloo Society for Crippled Children in March 1956; purchased property across from the K.W. Hospital; and built a children's treatment centre. The KW Rotary Children's Centre was officially opened in 1957. This was the culmination of a long and proud history of voluntary service by local Rotarians. The Rotary Children's Centre was constructed entirely through voluntary donations.
During the 1950's and 1960's the Rotary Children's Centre served children from Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge and Guelph. There were several expansions to the Kitchener facility necessitated by the growing population of these communities and by the extension of therapy service to children with communication disorders and other disabilities.
As a result of this expansion of population and clientele, the Centre established a small clinic in Cambridge in 1972. This developed into a strategic partnership with the Cambridge Family YMCA that resulted in a co-location on the site of the new Cambridge Family YMCA in 1996. A further expansion resulted in new premises in 2003.
In 1995 the organization completed construction of a 54,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility in Waterloo to replace the smaller facility in Kitchener. This facility opened on September 26, 1995 following a successful $8 million capital campaign supported by government, local Rotary Clubs, corporations and many private supporters. Following continued growth a Guelph site was established in 1999 and this developed into a co-location partnership with the City of Guelph at their West End Community Centre. A Fergus site was established in 2000 through the support of the Fergus - Elora Rotary Club. In 2003 the name of the organization was officially changed to KidsAbility - Centre for Child Development.
For many years, KidsAbility has been looking at options to expand our facilities. The main location in Waterloo and sites in Guelph, Fergus and Cambridge are all at capacity. In spring 2011, KidsAbility will open a new site in Kitchener and will lease 5,200 square feet of the 50,000-square-foot Family Centre at 65 Hanson Avenue. In addition to this new therapy space, KidsAbility will also have access to a large double gymnasium and change rooms, spacious hallways that will easily accommodate wheelchairs plus meeting and community rooms. Once open, we will offer an extensive range of services, including physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech-language therapy and social work services. This multi-partner co-location will allow us to leverage our limited resources by fostering new partnerships that benefit all of our clients, thereby building a brighter future together! For more details on the new Kitchener site, click here.