Clark Builders awarded CASA Mental Health expansion work

Key Takeaways:

• Clark Builders has been awarded the contract to construct four new CASA House facilities in Fort McMurray, Calgary, Medicine Hat, and Edmonton, as part of a $110 million project to significantly expand youth mental health services across Alberta.
• The Government of Alberta is contributing $47 million in capital grants as part of a larger $75 million commitment, with additional community fundraising planned to ensure services remain fully funded and free for families.
• The facilities will be built using a trauma-informed, standardized design through an Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) model, promoting early collaboration among all stakeholders and aiming to quadruple CASA House bed capacity to serve over 300 youth annually.

The Whole Story:

Clark Builders has been awarded the contract to lead the CASA Mental Health Capital Expansion project, a transformative initiative that will expand mental health services for children and youth across Alberta. Commissioned by CASA Mental Health—Alberta’s second-largest provider of community-based youth mental health care—the project will establish four purpose-built CASA House facilities in Fort McMurray, Calgary, Medicine Hat, and Edmonton.

With a total project budget of $110 million, the expansion is backed by the Government of Alberta through $47 million in capital grants in Budget 2025. This funding is part of a broader $75 million capital commitment between 2023 and 2026 to increase access to youth mental health services and relocate the current Sherwood Park CASA House to Edmonton.

The expansion is a key milestone in CASA’s five-year strategic roadmap to enhance adolescent day treatment and live-in programming. CASA focuses on the “missing middle”—youth aged 3 to 18 who require specialized mental health care that falls between primary community care and acute hospital treatment.

Each new CASA House will be over 30,000 square feet and designed with trauma-informed principles informed by feedback from families, patients, and mental health professionals. Construction will follow a standardized base-building model to streamline delivery and cost-efficiency. The Calgary and Fort McMurray facilities are slated to open in 2027, followed by Medicine Hat and Edmonton in 2029. Once fully operational, these facilities will quadruple CASA House bed capacity across Alberta to approximately 80 and serve more than 300 young Albertans annually.

Clark Builders, who previously delivered the CASA Centre in Edmonton in 2016, will lead the construction using an Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) model. This approach emphasizes early collaboration between the owner, design team, and builder to foster innovation, transparency, and shared responsibility. Key project partners include Reimagine Architects, SMP Engineering, WSP Canada Inc., Eng-Spire, Canem Systems Ltd., Dee-Jay Plumbing & Heating Ltd., and Collins Steel.

Alberta’s government emphasized the importance of the expansion as part of its Alberta Recovery Model, which integrates prevention, intervention, treatment, and recovery. CASA House programs provide live-in and day treatment for youth aged 12 to 18 with complex mental health challenges. Services include individual, group, and family therapy, on-site schooling, life skills training, and active caregiver participation in care planning and therapy.

“This facility will help children receive quality mental health care close to home,” said Brian Jean, MLA for Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche. Local MLAs Tany Yao and Justin Wright echoed the importance of bringing specialized youth mental health supports to underserved communities.

CASA Mental Health is working to secure final land agreements and will launch a community fundraising campaign to supplement the capital investment. The organization remains committed to ensuring all services are fully funded and accessible, with no out-of-pocket costs for families.