The 11,000-square-foot Sooke Child, Youth and Family Centre is a one-stop location for children and youth service agencies in the community of Sooke. Eight agencies reside in the $2.5 million dollar Centre built by the Queen Alexandra Foundation, sharing a receptionist and numerous common areas. The Queen Alexandra Foundation used some of its endowment and fundraised for the $2.5 million cost of constructing and furnishing the centre. The building has a daycare and a preschool, family counseling centres, a community kitchen and clothing loan service.

Above:  The Sooke Child, Youth and Family Centre

These agencies provide services from the Sooke Centre:

• Edward Milne Community School Society is one of two high schools in School District 62 (Sooke). They are located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island and have approximately 700 students from Sooke and the surrounding area including the communities of East Sooke, Jordan River, and Port Renfrew.
• Ministry of Children and Family Development: promotes and develops the capacity of families and communities to care for and protect vulnerable children and youth and support healthy child and family development to maximize the potential of every child in BC.
• Pacific Centre Family Services Association: encourages healthy patterns of living and enhances and promotes the quality and dignity of life of individuals and families. 
• Sooke Co-operative Preschool: was founded in 1975 as a cooperative, non-profit preschool.
• Sooke Family Resource Society: principal purpose is to assist the community in developing, maintaining, and furthering communications within  and between families in the municipalities of Sooke, East Sooke, Jordan River, French Beach, Shirly, Port Renfrew, and surrounding areas..
• Sooke Options for Community Living: Sooke Options for Community Living Association exists to provide opportunities for personal growth, independence, and participation in the community for people who live with developmental and physical disabilities, and to provide support to their families and caregivers.
• Sooke Women's Transition House: provides emergency shelter, at no cost for women and children experiencing relationship abuse and/or violence, and to care for their emotional needs in an understanding and compassionate manner.
• Vancouver Island Health Authority: provides health care to people on Vancouver Island, on the islands of the Georgia Strait, and in the mainland communities between Powell River and Rivers Inlet.

These agencies make up the Sooke CASA (Co-operative Association of Service Agencies), which leases the building from the Queen Alexandra Foundation for $1 a year and is responsible for all operating costs associated with agencies. Money that the non-profit agencies spent on rent can now be redirected back into their programs.

"Our staff have formed close working relationships with the other agencies in the building, and everyone has a much better understanding of what each agency does which in turn helps us all to provide better service to the community."  ~ Susan Wright, Sooke Transition House Society (resident agency at the Sooke Centre).

Volunteers from Sooke, many from the agencies themselves, have poured countless hours and energy into this Centre. They have created not only an incredibly child friendly space but also one that reflects the community of Sooke with motifs and materials taken from the natural and marine environment. Posts from the Douglas Fir logged on the site hold up the entranceway, rocks excavated for the foundations are moored in the red floor, and leaf and fern patterns adorn the walkways. The building cannot be adequately described but needs to be viewed for the full effect!

The Sooke Child, Youth and Family Centre is located at 2145 Townsend Road South.  To contact the main receptionist at the Centre, call 250-642-6364.