We help families with children that are seriously ill (mentally included) or critically-injured that spend a lot of time in or out of the hospital/clinic and as a result, one or both parents might not be able to return to work, have had a loss of income or is not able to keep up with the bills. The whole family’s situation is reviewed, including the income and the diagnosis/injury of the child. We try to figure out if their current financial situation and working status is caused by the diagnosis/injury of the child and not because of other unfortunate events. We also look at how long have/will the parents be required to stay on a lower income before they can go back to their full earnings.

The child needs to be 18 years old and under in order to apply for support.

There is a maximum amount of dollars provided. We require a mortgage statement or a lease agreement and we support the amount on the statement up to two months of support or $2,500, whichever is the lower.

We normally support families for one or two months of rent or mortgage payments. Families can reapply the following year if they still need help. We do try to help as many families as possible prior to helping a single family on a long-term basis. There is no actual amount of income that would not qualify. We request monthly income before diagnosis and monthly income after diagnosis. We look at the loss of income now that the child has been diagnosed or in the hospital. We help families not necessarily with the lowest income but with the greatest loss of income or in a situation where there is no possibility of making more money or no support available. We also look at how long have/will the parents be required to stay in a lower income before they can go back to work.

Once the application for assistance is completed and returned to us, the Community Key Board of Directors reviews the application and it can take up to three weeks to hear back from us. We may have further questions regarding the application.

Approved funding is only for rent or mortgage payments.

Yes, we do! We provide assistance across Western Canada.

We do require the application to be fully completed to be eligible. There is a lot of private information required on the application that not everyone wishes to answer and we understand that some families would rather not apply and not get the support in order to keep this information private, however we do need all this information to make the best decisions.

We understand that families are going through what is their most difficult time. Typically, we require meeting the families in person to deliver the funds. The visit does not normally take more than 15 minutes, and only one or two representatives from Community Key meet with the family. The only exception would be an unexpected last-minute event that would cause the family to not be able to meet us (ie: travel outside of Alberta for emergency surgery or the child has passed away, etc.)

We do not need to meet at the hospital or clinic, but we can meet where families are most comfortable having us. It can be at their home, coffee shop, outside the hospital, etc. The child does not have to be present as we understand it can be hard to bring them to specific places.

Our sole mission is to help families that are caring for a seriously-ill or critically-injured child in paying their mortgage or rent payment. Your current financial situation and working status needs to be caused by the diagnosis of the child and not because of other unfortunate events.

It is not a requirement to share the family story on social media to receive funds. We are happy to share as many stories as we can to help more families and spread the word about Community Key.