Historical Evolution Highlights

1980s

The Kinsmen Club of Sudbury, a community based service organization, has been actively involved in community service and charitable functions for many years. As part of its service activities, the Sudbury Kinsmen provided financial assistance to many Sudbury area residents who had to travel to larger centers for special medical treatment. They were one of the first clubs to support the CF clinic at Sick Children's Hospital in Toronto. In late 1983, a CF clinic for Northeastern Ontario was established at Laurentian Hospital and the Sudbury Kinsmen received requests for travel and lodging assistance from people who traveled from all areas of Northeastern Ontario to Sudbury.

With the growth of Sudbury as the medical referral centre of Northeastern Ontario, an increase in the frequency and urgency of these requests was experienced. Chris Sheridan, a Sudbury Kinsmen member, presented his idea to the Sudbury Kinsmen Club about developing a program focused on offering accommodation assistance to out of town visitors coming to Sudbury for medical treatment. After several hours of discussion, the idea was approved by the club members and saw the beginning of this unique project. Several committees were formed to develop policy and procedure in order to deal with the increased load of requests. The Kinsmen created a foundation known as the Sudbury Kinsmen Family Centre Foundation; they applied and received charitable status with Revenue Canada. This foundation was governed by a volunteer board whose goal was to develop and administer a means of providing affordable accommodation for those individuals from outside the Sudbury region. In 1984, an agreement with several hotels for the use of vacant guestrooms was completed, they decided to implement the program on a trial basis with a review after its' initial year of operation. In the first year, the Kinsmen assisted 120 families with accommodations at a reduced cost. After discussions with hotel owners and staff, they decided to carry on with the program. In the second year, as the program became more widely known, a sub-agency called Information Sudbury was contracted to accept phone requests and to process any inquiries and reservations for the program. At the end of the second year, the Sudbury Kinsmen had assisted 280 families.

In 1986, members of the Kinsmen club decided that assistance from the community would be required as it could no longer be a simple service project of the club. With a change in club leadership, several members voiced concern about the increased work load placed on its members. The Sudbury Kinsmen Club held a meeting and voted to relinquish ownership and control of the foundation. A small group under the leadership of Chris Sheridan vowed to keep the program going and continue offering the opportunity of helping people in their time of need. Their focus was to create a new community based volunteer Board of Directors appointed from interested members of our community. It was decided by the new board to maintain the name Sudbury Kinsmen Family Centre Foundation, in recognition of the clubs’ vision, hard work and dedication provided in the initial years of conception and operation.

In the summer of 1987, it became apparent that the original agreement with the hotels had exceeded expectation and was not working as originally intended. A sub-committee of the Board of Directors undertook a search and identified a favorable site near hospitals. Being under new ownership, the motel was interested in working with our program. After negotiations, the motel was contracted to offer rooms for our program at a reduced rate. Over the next several years the program experienced growth and became more efficient enabling the program to provide assistance to over 1500 people with 5600 room availability annually.

1990s

From 1987- 1991 the Board of Directors worked hard to raise enough funding to purchase a facility.

In May of 1997 the dedicated and hard working board members, under Founder Chris Sheridan leadership, time and efforts paid off and they purchased an existing motor hotel, The Grand Prix Inn, to continue the program. The marketing firm retained by the foundation recommended that the existing facility name be changed; the House of Kin / Maison de Kin was adopted. This name reflects the true expression of family, people who care and support one another, a quality provided for those staying at the facility.

In October 1997, the House of Kin was able to offer its' affordable accommodation and support program from our own home. In a five year span, in our home away from home, our program was utilized by more than 45,000 people.

2000s

Later, in 2004, management created and staff distributed a survey. Guests suggested that the facility needed an elevator, in-house laundry facility, better security, handicap suite and a wheelchair accessible washroom. Unfortunately there was no room in the building to accommodate to the requests. The Board of Directors decided the best solution for the House of Kin and its’ guests would be to fundraise for an addition. Directors knew this addition would provide guests the ability to use the facility to the fullest.

By 2005, we organized a capital campaign called, “Catch the Spirit” so as to help in raising funds for our new planned addition. Over the next four years we worked extremely hard to raise the necessary funds to proceed with phase one of our three story project.

In 2009 the House of Kin had an exciting year!

The House of Kin raised 85% of the funds needed for the expansion through fundraisers such as direct mail campaigns, room sponsorship opportunities, solicitation of sponsorship for corporations, foundation and service clubs. Additional community fundraisers, with specific components, contributed to the fundraising required funds. We applied and received funding from The Ontario Trillium Foundation and Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation (NOHFC) that assisted us in raising more dollars towards our project. A handicap suite, a wheelchair accessible washroom, an elevator, a quiet room, a security system and an in-house laundry facility was added as suggested by guests as a necessity. The addition has helped in giving guests the ability to access both floors with ease and comfort. Guests have expressed on numerous occasions that the new addition has helped to increase the home away from home feeling.

Currently our room occupancy rate averages above 80% weekly and continues to grow each year. With growth comes waiting lists and although this may occur we encourage current and future guests to book in advance. At the House of Kin we consider everyone family and treat each and every guest with respect and compassion by making this “Your Home Away from Home”.