About Us

The Canadian Centre for Men and Families (CCMF) Alberta provides a safe and welcoming space for men while they navigate relationship distress. Our aim is to help equip men so they can be more involved fathers, better partners, safer workers, and more engaged contributing members of their communities.

CCMF Alberta focuses on filling the gap in services for men’s mental health. We recognize that men require different forms of emotional support that that reflects their unique experiences of emotionality as males. Our clients are male identifying individuals who have experienced distressing events and/or trauma causing them to suffer emotionally and often financially. They need a safe place to belong and have meaningful conversations so that they can create a better future for themselves and their families.

We meet our clients where they are and support them with compassion, belonging, and in a non-judgemental space. We work to build agency (the feeling of control over actions and consequences). We provide our clients with the support, tools, and resources to improve their mental and family health. Improved mental health leads to reduced suicide, optimal parenting outcomes, and reduced family violence.

CCMF Alberta helps men struggling with relationship distress, parental alienation, family law matters, and mental health challenges. We offer somewhere men can belong, feel supported, and build community.

CCMF Alberta advocates for improved services and supports for Boys and Men. We work to raise awareness of the social attitudes and assumptions that lead to less support and compassion for boys and men in Canadian Society.

“I was devastated, broken and without hope before I found CCMF. While I still have a ways to go, I know that I have a supportive community to help me with the journey. What is amazing to see is the bonds and transformation of the men in the short while I have been with CCMF and our desire to want to be more involved and help our fellow man.” CCMF Participant

“CCMF saved my life” CCMF Participants

Our intake coordinator can provide resources, and tools regardless of your financial capacity.

Our intake coordinator can provide resources, and tools with reduced financial pressure.

CCMF Alberta has been operating for five years as the local branch of our National charity, which was incorporated in 2013. We have expanded our services from the original Men’s Peer Support Group to offer professional counselling and a suite of other services. In 2019 our services expanded when Calgary and Edmonton joined to provide support to men across the province. In January 2020 we opened our first storefront location in Calgary, since the pandemic we transitioned to offering services online which resulted in broader accessibility for men across the province. In 2021 the national branch of CCMF opened Canada’s first shelter for men fleeing domestic violence in York, Toronto.

Compassion

CCMF Alberta recognizes the intrinsic value of every individual. We believe that all human beings who experience difficulty should be treated with compassion and without shaming. We strive to lift men and their families by listening first, believing them, and avoiding negative stereotypes. 

Belonging

CCMF Alberta provides a safe and caring space where men are able to share their experiences without the fear of judgment or disbelief. Wherever possible, we leverage the lived experience and collective wisdom of other men who have had similar experiences and instill a sense of community where the hope for a better future can become a reality.

Agency

CCMF Alberta assists clients find effective solutions for the problems they face so they have a feeling of control over actions and consequences. We are committed to offering a hand up, not a hand out, by equipping men with appropriate tools, education, resources and ongoing support.

Future-Focus, Innovation, Collaboration

CCMF Alberta stands for respectful, open dialogue amongst us and with others. We recognize that rigid adherence to ideologies often stymies productive discussion and inhibits effective collaboration. We believe open conversation advances the best interests of society as a whole and wherever possible, we collaborate with our agency partners to access a diversity of perspectives.

CCMF Alberta anchors our efforts in scientific, peer-reviewed studies, not common belief or ideology. Recent studies confirm that shared parenting results in happier, healthier, and more successful children. For example, children who have access to both parents perform better in school. They are also less likely to drop out of college, face addiction, become involved with crime, or commit suicide. These studies help inform and guide CCMF Alberta in supporting families in putting their best foot forward during and after relationship distress.