By September the old storage shed at the Cariboo Chilcotin Child Development Centre on Second Avenue will be replaced with a new 6,000 square-foot addition that will house a new storage area, as well as new clinic offices and meeting rooms.
The addition will bring the CDC building to 20,000 square feet of space for children and the professionals who work with them.
The CDC has operated continuously since 1975 providing assessment, treatment, education and assistance to vulnerable children and children with special needs and their families.
The $60,000 renovation project is expected to be completed by September and will allow the society to bring all of the services it provides back under one roof, says executive director Nancy Gale.
For the past few years CDC programs have been split between the main CDC centre on Second Avenue and the Central Interior Community Services Co-operative building on Fourth Avenue which is currently shared by the CDC, Women's Contact Society, Boys and Girls Club of Williams Lake and District, the Williams Lake Association for Community Living, and the Canadian Mental Health Association, Williams Lake branch.
Gale says the renovations currently taking shape at the front of the building include a new waiting room for parents and children, a new reception area and two more offices. The sprung floor gymnasium will stay but the old storage room beside it will be replaced with new storage space, plus meeting rooms and offices.
She says the society has raised all but $50,000 of the funds needed to complete the $600,000 project.
"We've done really well," Gale says.
She notes the city owns the property on which the CDC sits and the Cariboo Chilcotin Child Development Centre Society owns the building.
She says the renovated and expanded CDC will provide a central location where professionals working with children can work and connect.
Among the new offices, there will be one for the community's new pediatrician Dr. Monica McKay and one for visiting doctors.
She says a pediatrician from Prince George will continue to visit the community once a month and Dr. Jeff Peimer from Cariboo Memorial Hospital emergency also visits the CDC to work with children and youth.
Gale says the CDC also employs two physiotherapists, three occupational therapists and one speech language pathologist, who have offices and facilities at the CDC.
The CDC also has a very active pre-school program for children ages three to five which is open to all children.
"We have one of the longest running pre-school programs in the community," Gale says. "It has been running continuously since 1975 and has lots of playground space."