The intent behind the development of the Eastside walk-in service was to offer the clinical expertise of Wood's Homes to clients in their home communities and to broaden the service delivery in an area of the city that was identified as high need and under-serviced (Slive, MacLaurin ,Oakander & Amundson, 1995). .
The Alberta Mental Health Board, concerned community representatives from the east side of Calgary and other service providers joined with Wood's Homes in 1990 and formed a task force to guide the development of a new service in Calgary's northeast and southeast quadrants. A feasibility study revealed that the population in these two quadrants consisted largely of single-parent families. Many families struggled with issues such as poverty, violence, health and mental health concerns. This area was also characterized by significant cultural diversity, high density and 70% of the city's child protection referrals. At the time there was a shortage of schools, health centres and mental health services.
The outcome of the task force was that the Alberta Mental Health Board along with Wood's Homes' Board of Directors agreed to support this walk-in therapy venture by re-allocating existing funds to the project. The fact that the AMHB could express solid confidence in Wood's Homes' capability to successfully launch such a unique service attests to the strength of the long-term partnership and to the collaborative relationship between the two organizations. .
The Eastside Family Centre:.
The Eastside Family Centre is a one-stop, multifaceted, multi-partnered resource that is linked to existing services and community resources on the east side of the city. A Community Advisory Committee supports the Centre to continue to meet community need and respond to social change. The walk-in counselling is delivered as a single session of therapy at no fee to the client (Lawson, McElheran & Slive, 1997).