Archief F2976 - Calgary Inter-Faith Community Action Association fonds

In 1959, four Calgary churchmen from different religious faiths came together to address a community need to provide social services to transient men in the City’s east end. The result was the establishment of the inter-faith Calgary Welcome Recreation Centre, which became the Calgary Drop-In Centre. The success of this initiative led to other inter-church, inter-faith social initiatives and eventually the formation of the Calgary Inter-Faith Community Action Committee. The CIFCAC was incorporated as a society in 1968 and Father Patrick O’Byrne, one of the original four churchmen, served as its first Executive Director, 1968-1977. In 1980, the CIFCAC changed its name to the Calgary Inter-Faith Community Action Association (CIFCAA). The group formed, or was the catalyst and support for many important social service initiatives in the city including the Calgary Inter-Faith Food Bank, Calgary Inter-Faith Secondhand Store, Inter-Faith Housing, Inter-Faith Lacombe Centre, Inter-Faith Youth and Family Services, Calgary Drug Information Centre, the Old Y Centre, Connection Housing, and Calgary Urban Project Society. In 1978, the CIFCAC International Committee established the Southern Alberta World Development Animateur Project (SAWDAP) to assist local church congregations with their understanding of world development issues and opportunities. SAWDAP was renamed the Southern Alberta World Development Education Program (SAWDEP) in 1987 and the Micah Institute of Southern Alberta in 1992. In 1990, the CIFCAA initiated a parallel project called the Multi-Faith Development Education Project to offer similar services to non-Christian faith communities interested in development issues and education. For further information see Like a Chinook: The Calgary Inter-Faith Community Action Committee, An Overview: 1959-1974 by J.H. Grant Maxwell (Calgary: Inter-Church Consultants, 1974), and an informal history of the group prepared by longtime Board member, Pauline Kay, ca. 1996 (M-9403-255). It is likely the group disbanded around 2006.