Our Next Chapter

For the past few years at our annual vision planning day, the question about whether or not to adopt an operating name has come up. Our legal name, The Markham/Stouffville Crisis Pregnancy Centre Inc., presents some challenges. It is long, leads to unintentional confusion within the community that we are part of the Markham Stouffville Hospital, the word “pregnancy” can be a barrier for people struggling with pregnancy loss and “crisis” invokes negative emotions. August 2022 was the time to make a positive change and the Board of Directors voted to accept the new operating name, “The RISE Support Centre” as of January 2023.

What’s in a Name?

We want our name to inspire hope and be welcoming to clients. A name that encompasses our hope for clients that they move upward, become heartened, come into being, and exert themselves to meet an unexpected challenge.

“This is the first time in my life I feel like someone is raising me up.”
~Client

We want our name to represent our philosophy as a support organization: The RISE Support Centre is here to help clients make informed decisions that take into consideration all aspects of their holistic wellness and empowers them to move from crisis to thriving. The RISE Support Centre is based on the following four principles of helping clients move forward:

• We respect their beliefs, values, and goals
• We inform them of their options without bias
• We support their decision-making process
• We empower their self-determination

We want our name to work with our logo (which we love!)

The four petals represent – Respect, Inform, Support, Empower

The person is surrounded with support and uplifted

“RISE” beside the flower represents coming alongside

The Support Centre” and tagline represent a solid foundation on which to grow and thrive.

Our Next Steps

A new name is an important step towards building the future of the Centre, but there remains important work to be done to implement all the changes the team has planned for the Centre and for our community. However, without our MSCPC supporters, we wouldn’t be able to make this change – so thank you to all those who have been supporting us generously  for over 30 years!