On November 15, 1975 four graduates of Grant MacEwan College opened a group home in the inner city of Edmonton.  The opening of the group home was perhaps to some a seemingly ordinary event.  But these were no ordinary people and this was to be no ordinary group home.  Our founders knew and accepted that there were young people who needed to be cared for outside of their own families, but they questioned and challenged the existing norms and practices of how that care was provided.  Not only did they believe that things should be different, they believed that things could be different.  And so, they made them different. 

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The young people in the home were cared for within the context of supportive and understanding relationships and all practices were based upon the values of giving, trust, security and acceptance.  Within the group home a family and home-like environment was created, the individual interests of the young people were fostered, visits with family were encouraged and supported, and vacations and trips were common and frequent occurrences.  

For the young people the group home was not a placement.  Nor was it just a place to live.  It was a real home; a safe and caring place in which each of them was given equal opportunity, not to become equal, but to become different - to realize whatever unique potential of body, mind and spirit they

possessed.
 

And so, McMan had begun…