The importance of having a strategic plan has been thought about and talked about at meetings for many years by board members of our Foundation. At our last board meeting in 2022, we committed to having a strategic plan in place in 2023. We will provide some background information about our Foundation as well as our vision, mission and value statements that we clarified at our February 2022 meeting. We will also discuss our focus areas and our specific strategic priorities along with timelines and targets. We remain committed in supporting the work of organizations, both in Canada and abroad, in the fields of physical and mental health and education.

Peggy Robbins, the founder of the Harrison-Cooper Foundation, wanted to start a foundation to ensure that some portion of her assets were exclusively devoted to charitable activities reflecting her concerns.  Peggy was born near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and lived there until she was a young adult. After more than a decade of overseas education, extensive travel, and volunteer work, she met her future husband, John, a fellow American, working with the Quaker Relief Mission in Poland. In 1949, they married and ventured north to Edmonton, Alberta where they settled and raised six children. Love of travel, nature, reading and conversations with anyone, at any time, were integral parts of her character. She possessed a passion and insatiable curiosity for life, people and knowledge. With grace, humor and dignity she encouraged others to draw upon their own resourcefulness and creativity. To her children she was both a mother and powerful mentor. From an early age, Peggy volunteered quietly behind the scenes with individuals and groups to foster community development and create social change. Amongst other initiatives, she was involved with the Kentucky Frontier Nursing Service, the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (F.A.N.Y.) in Finland during World War II, the American Friends Service Committee in post-war Poland, the Indian-Eskimo Association (Canadian Association in Support of Native Peoples), the Jack Bredin Community Institute, the Boyle McCauley Health Center, and the Waln Foundation for Families and Children.

In 1995, Peggy registered the Robbins Family Foundation as a Canadian Charity under the Canadian Charity Act. After her death in 2003, and with a percentage of her assets put into the Foundation, her six children met to discuss how to move forward with ensuring Peggy’s wishes for the Foundation were carried out. After some discussion, it was decided to rename the Robbins Family Foundation to the Harrison-Cooper Foundation (HCF).