Valour Place, Hope Away From Home

Military families facing health challenges have a warm and welcoming place to stay in Edmonton, Alberta. Valour Place is a temporary home away from home for all Canadian Armed Forces members and their families who require medical treatment in the heart of the city yet, live outside the area.

Through Valour Place, military families have the means to face the challenges of receiving health care and rehabilitation in a warm, welcoming and supportive environment, at no cost.

“When the military member needs care they are looked after, but the family is rarely covered. The member may be injured, and the family may travel for hours to get into Edmonton. They need a place to stay, they have forgotten to pack the little things. This is the perfect place for them,” said Martin St-Onge, CD, house manager, Valour Place.

Valour Place is located in Edmonton’s Kingsway District, which is known as Edmonton and Western Canada’s medical, health and wellness destination. The new building is 10,000 square feet in size and is modelled after Fisher House, a support home for injured American soldiers and their families.

Accommodations include wheelchair accessible and barrier-free rooms/suites offering private bathrooms, television and internet. Military members and/or their families undergoing weekly treatments at city hospitals or rehabilitation facilities are welcome to stay as well.

Valour House has a dining hall, living room and family room, furnished in a comfortable, family-oriented style are complimented by an elevator accessible basement recreation area. Plus, it has a common kitchen that accommodates three to four families to prepare meals simultaneously.

“When you step through the doors of Valour Place as a guest, donor, neighbour or friend, I hope the first thing you think of is how it feels just like home. There are forty volunteers working here too. Some are retired military members. I was in the military for 28 years. We know the military,” said St. Onge.

Since opening in 2012, Valour Place has been running at or near capacity. An endowment fund was established from the start to ensure that no matter what happens in the future, Valour Place will never burden on the community to continue operations. The first of its kind in Canada, Valour Place is sustained through long-term leases, donations, endowment income and special events.

At the present time, funds are being raised for the continued operation of Valour Place through a brick campaign. For $100 a brick can be purchased and placed on one of the paths outside the building. St. Onge tours guests in and around the facility every day, looking for the bricks they have purchased to support the not-for-profit organization.

Valour Place opened in 2012 to give military members, veterans, first-responders and RCMP and their families a place to stay while undergoing medical treatment. As the first of its kind in Canada, Edmonton was the right fit not only because of the large population of military personnel but because of its world class health care in rehabilitation, brain injury, spinal cord injury, and amputations.

For more information, please visit Valour Place website.

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