Cool Aid Society closing after provincial funding cut

The Cool Aid Society announced it will shut down at the end of June due to provincial cuts. Pictured is building in the Patterson area in Grande Prairie, Alta. on Friday, May 9, 2025. (Photo by Jesse Boily)

The Cool Aid Society will shut down at the end of June after provincial cuts to its funding.

The 45-year-old society provided no-cost after-school and evening programs for children in Grande Prairie and currently serves over 300 registered families, with daily drop-in attendance ranging from 25 to 70 children.

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“Following a final board vote and an extensive review of all available sustainability options, including merger discussions, alternative fee-for-service models, grant applications, and community fundraising efforts, the Cool Aid Society of Grande Prairie has made the difficult decision to cease operations,” said AmandaBeret Gerber, Cool Aid Society executive director.

“The Cool Aid Society extends its heartfelt gratitude to every family, staff member, donor, volunteer, funder, and community member who has supported its mission over the past four decades,” reads a press release.

“The contributions and care shown by this community have made an immeasurable impact on the lives of thousands of local youth.”

Cool Aid’s last day of programming will be June 25, and the formal dissolution of the society will follow.

The decision comes after the society lost about 90 per cent of its budget after Recovery Alberta Mental Health and Addiction cut its funding, telling Gerber that it was “nothing personal” but rather a change in the province’s mandate to fund intervention rather than prevention.

The society was first told of the cut from the province on Jan. 21, leaving it without enough funds to continue operations beyond March 31.

In February, the City of Grande Prairie and United Way Alberta Northwest each gave Cool Aid $30,000 to ensure its programming could continue until the end of the school year.

“We’ve been really trying our best to find a solution for everything, and I will say right now it’s not the positive news as we’d like to share,” Gerber told the News a week before the announced closure.

She outlined the efforts of the staff and volunteers of Cool Aid as they worked over the past months to find a solution to keep the society alive.

It tried to partner with other non-profits, change its model to a pay model with business sponsors to keep costs low, and trying to sell its Hillside building.

“We’ve definitely cut every possible operational expense that we can,” said Gerber, noting in the last weeks, it’s been working with a “skeleton crew.”

Still, last week when speaking with Town & Country News, she said, “Everyone is genuinely trying very hard to find a solution of some kind; at the moment, we do not have one.”

In an email to the News, she said that Cool Aid notified the city and United Way of its decision on Thursday, May 8.

All unused Family and Community Support Services (FCSS) funds will be returned along with its emergency funds, she said.

“Our board has elected to return the emergency funds to both the city and United Way once our assets are liquidated to ensure that money can be given to another organization and as a matter of accountability and respect for the support provided when we needed it most,” said Gerber.

A city report from February says eliminating Cool Aid Society’s services could “increase reliance on costly emergency services, social support programs and law enforcement.”

City Housing & Community Development director Tammy Wentzell told council in February she is unaware of other local organizations losing their funding but says any organizations funded by Recovery Alberta may face similar challenges.

She said the city and some organizations, such as Cool Aid, receiving funds from Recovery Alberta may need to change their messaging to ensure they keep their funding. Cool Aid Society does bridge the gap between prevention and intervention.

“I don’t know if it’s a different conversation that we got to start having or a different way to look at how we’re talking about the programs.

“We do have to switch our language and how we’re using it, or how we’re telling our story, because we are not a recovery community at this time, but we have to remember that when the province is [saying] ‘we’re intervention versus prevention.’”

In February, Mayor Jackie Clayton said the province’s mental health and recovery funding changes impact the local community.

“We all know that if we don’t have prevention, in particular, youth programming, that we will, in time, need more money in intervention and recovery,” she said.

Cool Aid Society was founded in 1979 and has supported the community’s youth with mental health support, after-school and evening programs and community engagement.

By Jesse Boily, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Town & Country News