Following the discovery of mould in its former permanent location attached to the Department of Education building on Lewes Boulevard in 2021, the Child Development Centre (CDC) had been operating out of several temporary sites throughout Whitehorse. However, this period of upheaval has come to a close, with the centre’s staff now settled in a new permanent location at 206 Hanson St. in downtown Whitehorse.
“In 2021, in the summer, we were informed they were doing some work to repair the ceilings [at the old building], and then we were informed there was some mould […] We were relocated temporarily, and since then, we’ve moved five different times, often we were always in about three different spaces,” Alayne Squair, the CDC’s executive director, tells the News.
“And so that was very challenging in terms of providing a really cohesive service, but it was also challenging on staff to have that many moves over two years, and just, you know, not being together under the same roof,” she adds, noting that the new building offers both staff and the children who visit the centre a renewed sense of stability.
CDC employees moved into the new building at the end of August, and an open house was held on Sept. 27 to showcase the facility. Roughly 250 members of the public, media, government officials and the centre’s partner agencies attended the event.
The CDC has been operating as a not-for-profit organization in the Yukon since 1979. It offers a range of therapeutic supports — speech‐language therapy, developmental therapy and psychology among others — to Yukon children from birth until they enter kindergarten. According to a press release, more than 1,100 children and families use the centre’s services annually.
Squair notes that children visit the CDC for a variety of reasons. Some parents bring their children to the centre because they are unsure of how their child’s development is progressing or because they’re curious about what to expect next.
“For those parents, we have what we call a ‘follow-along program.’ So, it’s just a developmental check, and you do it through talking to parents and playing with the child, and they get an idea where their child’s at, and then what to expect next, and a chance to ask any questions they might have about their child’s development,” Squair says.
Other children are brought to the centre because they are experiencing challenges or a medical diagnosis.
“We might see kids, for example, who have speech and language challenges. So maybe we have a three-year-old that’s not talking yet. And then on the other end of the spectrum, we see a lot of kids that might have a lot of medical complexities or a diagnosis,” Squair tells the News, highlighting autism spectrum disorder and feeding issues as among the challenges the centre’s staff help to tackle.
To assist children, the CDC’s staff offer a “family-centred practice” that includes therapy sessions at the centre’s new building, as well as at homes in Whitehorse and in other communities across the territory.
“As part of what we do here in the territory, we travel to all the 14 communities. And so, in places like Watson Lake, for example, we’ll go once every two months [and] we stay three or four days. Somewhere like Carmacks, we’d go once a month to stay the full day,” Squair says.
“Sometimes in those communities, we hire people who live in the communities to do some work with the kids and families in between our visits — with the supervision of the therapists. So, we have quite a few people hired in some communities right now,” she adds.
Teams of therapists, diagnostics professionals and an early-learning support team, among other child health and wellness professionals, are on staff at the CDC. The centre also has a team that works with Kwanlin Dün First Nation and staff that support Indigenous youth in Whitehorse. All told, roughly 55 people work with the CDC in its new facility and across the Yukon.
In addition to a sense of stability, the new building offers the centre’s employees and visitors a range of unique therapy spaces and improved accessibility in the form of an elevator, which allows all guests to access the building’s second floor.
According to Squair, the new space hosts 11 therapy spaces, including a play therapy room, a sensory room filled with play mats, a swing and ball pit and lights that change colour. There’s also a gym with a small climbing wall, a therapeutic preschool and an outdoor playground located on the second floor’s patio area. The upstairs office area also boasts small, private meeting rooms where parents can chat with CDC staff.
Asked about her favourite aspect of the new space, Squair says she is most happy with the ample windows allowing for natural light to enter and the soft and bright colour scheme in rooms that don’t have windows, creating a light and warm atmosphere.
“I do think the light factor is [my favourite feature] — and even rooms that don’t have windows are very bright and welcoming […] That, I think, was what struck me probably the most when I came in here,” she says, adding she is happy they’ve been able to create comfortable spaces for kids and families.
“The journey here is not an easy one for families and can be very stressful for some. And so, I think having a place that feels comfortable — and not industrial — was really important to us. And I think we’ve achieved that.”
To ensure that the new space is well-suited to the needs of CDC employees and visitors, staff worked closely with the architects designing it. The centre’s Family Partnership Council, of which parents are a part, also offered feedback on what they wanted to see.
“It took a lot of time and meetings with the architects to tailor it to our needs, and they did a fabulous job in that,” Squair says.
“We feel like the outcome and the final result [is that] we have a space that meets the needs of the kind of work we do with children and families and accommodates all of our staff and programming.”
So far, since opening, the response from parents has been overwhelmingly positive, Squair notes.
“They’ve been really excited […] and the feedback we’ve got from all the parents has been great and they’re just amazed by the space.”
Contact Matthew Bossons at matthew.bossons@yukon-news.com