History

Children’s Centre Thunder Bay has a proud and vibrant history of serving the community of Thunder Bay and surrounding area. Our Centre, known at the time as Lakehead Regional Family Centre, officially started on April 1, 1988, with the merger of Lakehead Family Services Centre (LRSC) and the Regional Children’s Centre (RCC). However, our roots go back into the 1980s with organizations like Teen Family, Kinark and Browndale. 
 
Over the years, and with changes in government priorities, we added a number of new programs such the Adolescent Sex Offender Program (1990); the Short-Term Assessment and Treatment Program (1993), the New Experiences Program (1995), the Supervised Access Program (2005), the Autism Intervention Program (2006), and the Walk-in Counselling Clinic (2007), to name a few. 
 
In 2004, we changed our name and image and became known as the Children’s Centre Thunder Bay, and in November 2004, the Board of Directors launched the Children’s Centre Foundation. 
 
Today, the Children’s Centre is a leading provider of children’s services in the province of Ontario. We employ more than 150 staff and serve both the City and District of Thunder Bay. As an organization, we continue to evolve to meet the changing needs of our community through leadership, service innovation and knowledge-informed practices. 
 
Children’s Centre Thunder Bay is proud to be accredited by the Canadian Centre for Accreditation (CCA) in recognition of achieving established standards for quality in governance, management, and child and youth mental health. CCA offers a third-party review process that is tailored to community-based organizations. CCA accreditation is based on widely accepted best practice standards that promote ongoing quality improvement and responsive, effective community services.