Over 40 years ago, Marguerite Séguin-Desnoyers, a staunch defender of children, worked at the Centre Marie-Vincent –– an organization dedicated to helping boys and girls under 12 with serious socio-affective problems. She had great hopes and dreams for the future: to offer those children an education as well as psychological and psychiatric care provided by child psychiatrists from the Sainte-Justine hospital.
Over the years, with help from the Ministry of the Family and Health and Welfare, the Centre Marie-Vincent became officially recognized as a public institution, and was given an operating budget. New installations were built but they soon became too cramped.
To help meet the ever-growing needs of the Centre, the Marie-Vincent Foundation was created in 1975. The Foundation received financial contributions that greatly helped improve the services provided. From then on, Mrs. Séguin-Desnoyers began organizing fund-raising campaigns aimed primarily at the private sector. The funds she raised helped open and maintain a weekend home for young girls from dysfunctional families.
Recognizing the vital need within her community and the lack of available resources, Mrs. Séguin-Desnoyers extended the scope of the Foundation’s efforts to include boys and girls who had been victims of sexual abuse. She also helped children who were unable to visit the Centre in person.
In 1994, the Foundation became officially independent of the Centre Marie-Vincent. At the same time, the government of Québec began a complete reform of its youth home programs and began creating youth Centres. The Foundation became the manager of a substantial operating budget and redefined its mission to include all mistreated children under 12 and their families, not only victims of sexual abuse.
In 2005, thanks to help from the government of Québec, numerous partners from the private sector and precious collaborators, the Foundation inaugurated the Centre d’expertise Marie-Vincent and Marie-Vincent Interuniversity Chair on sexual abuse of children.
With the inauguration of the Huguette-Bertrand House in June 2008, the Foundation created a single, permanent home for the Centre d’expertise en agression sexuelle, the Interuniversity Chair and the Marie-Vincent Foundation.
Today, the dream of Marguerite Séguin-Desnoyers is finally being realized.
