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Hope’s Home opens in Prince Albert

Mar 4, 2013 | 5:02 AM

Hope’s Home officially opened the doors to its new Prince Albert location at a ribbon cutting ceremony on Sunday.

Spaces in the program are already filling up because demand for childcare in Prince Albert is high, said Mickey Macgillivray, director of education at the Prince Albert location.

“We have 21 starting tomorrow, in all different ages and needs, we have three little infants starting and right up to pre-school and school-aged children,” she said.

The current space is suitable for 44 children, said Macgillivray, although there are plans to develop their property in order to open up more spaces for children.

As of now, eight staff members are employed at the Prince Albert location including occupational therapists, speech therapists and nurses. However, more staff will be needed as they expand their roster of daycare attendees.

Hope’s Home is unique because it offers medical daycare. Basically, the program can handle “children with any disabilities, feed tubes, tracheotomies, anything like that. We have two nurses on staff all the time to help with any medical needs,” said Macgillivray adding, the programs offered at Hope’s Home are open to traditionally healthy children as well.

It’s only the second daycare of its kind in all of Canada with the other being in Regina.

“We are so excited to be in Prince Albert … and I am excited to build relationships with our community here,” said executive director and founder of Hope’s Home, Jacqueline Tisher.

Tisher opened the Regina location in 2004 and in the eight years since.

“It has really evolved, now we have three locations in Regina … and we have 27 full-time staff and 78 kids that come every day. It has really, really grown,” Tisher said.

Eventually, the staff hopes to provide their unique daycare service to more than 80 children at the Prince Albert location.

Scroll down to see Tisher discuss the origins of Hope’s Home.

Click here to take a virtual tour of the new Hope’s Home location.

sleslie@panow.com

On Twitter: @_seanleslie