The KCS Association in Sylvan Lake is continuing to expand and has recently hired a new executive director.
Riley Collicutt, who was previously the Early Intervention director at KCS was approached by the board to take over the position - which she gladly accepted.
“I was approached by the board who felt I would be a good fit for the position of executive director,” Collicutt said. “I am so excited, when I first moved here I picked KCS because I felt it was a fast-growing organization where I could be able to influence a lot. I am excited for the growth and learning. I am taking courses and I have a lot of great supports here and on the board. I am excited to devote the time.”
KCS is a program which helps many people with educational needs.
“KCS has a number of different programs,” Collicutt said. “What we are most known for is our Early-learning Centre. We have programs for kiddos who are 21 months all the way up to six-years-old. They start in our toddler program and go all the way up to our Kindergarten program. Within our Early-learning, we have Early-intervention for those kids that require a little extra support - we get speech pathologists, behavioural therapists, occupational therapists and physical therapists to come in and work with the kids who require that support.”
With the growth of the organization due to community need, KCS’ other programs have moved into a brand new satellite location.
“At our new facility we have FSCD, which is Family Support for Children with Disabilities,” Collicutt said. “That provides community respite for families that need support and that is for children all the way up to 18-years-old. We also have PDD, which is adult support for 18 and above.”
These two programs have seen the most amount of expansion at KCS.
“Our program is always growing, especially with FSCD and PDD,” Collicutt explained. “We are always getting new families. With PDD, people don’t leave that program because it is 18 and onwards. It used to be in this office, but as we grew we needed more space and recently we opened a satellite location. They have a really cool set up there. FSCD and PDD are both there and they have a really cool space there where there is a common room area there with workstation computers where people can come in and work on resumes and look for job opportunities.”
Collicutt added, “Our staff works with them to connect them with community resources where they can get employment placements. It is a really neat area to go to and have all those resources available to them.”
KCS’ many programs are funded through their larger provincial affiliates like FSCD, PDD and Alberta Education, however day-to-day operations are run through the United Way.
“United Way is our biggest funder to help us operate,” Collicutt said. “They provide as with our biggest source of income and as a non-profit, we are entirely grateful.”
KCS runs many different fundraisers and have recently added a ‘Donate Now’ link to both their web site, kcs78.ca, as well as their facebook page.
“We are always running fundraisers,” Collicutt explained. “We just finished our first ever KCS Jelly Bean Family Dance, which was focused on kids under 10. It will be one of our big fundraisers in future years but we are always looking for people to help buy and sell our fundraising items.”
reporter@sylvanlakenews.com