History

25 Years of Service

During a ten year period from 1984 – 1994, private citizens, Calgarians who were grateful for the professional and caring medical service they received from the Calgary EMS personnel, made donations to The City of Calgary. This source of revenue prompted the EMS to consider the expanded role they could play in the community. Their decision – to become a proactive provider of services that would ensure continued responsive service and sustainable pre-hospital care even as call volumes continued to grow – is one that once again demonstrated Calgary is an industry leader. Public Education and support initiatives were identified, and realizing that many of these activities would be outside the mandate and scope of publicly funded emergency medical services, caring and committed EMS personnel created the Emergency Medical (EMS) Services Foundation in 1995 - the first EMS Foundation in Canada.

Provincially Focused

In 2018, the EMS Foundation embarked on an expansion campaign to spread community-based initiatives throughout Alberta to serve our vision; Enhancing Paramedic Care for Albertans. The next few years are going to represent an exciting period of growth as we bring innovative programs to new communities.

A proactive approach where patients come first.

The EMS Foundation is now one of the few charitable emergency medical services organizations in Canada fundraising to provide programs and services. With their commitment to the community in which they live and work, over the past 25 years, the dedicated EMS Foundation Volunteer Board took the initiative to design and launch programs utilizing the funding support of the foundation. With a vision for the future, this team is working to expand the funding support available through the EMS Foundation in order to continually advance the level of care they were able to provide.

Their efforts have resulted in innovative programs that have impacted all ages and levels of healthcare provided. They have reached out in this community beyond urgent medical care to create services which educate the young and the elderly – taking a preventative approach to health.

Just as hospitals raise funds for advanced equipment and procedures, the EMS Foundation raises for state of the art equipment.

The EMS Foundation is committed to actions that will ensure long term stability and growth for the organization. This includes developing a community based fundraising strategy to provide the financial requirements for programs and operations and the on-going development and election of a community-centered board of directors.

Learn how you can support EMS Foundation through donation, events, or volunteering.