The Rowan House Emergency Shelter is celebrating its tenth anniversary in High River.

It's been providing help to women and children dealing with domestic abuse for 22 years, first in Black Diamond before opening its doors in High River on July 30, 2012.

Executive Director Linette Soldan says there have been a number of firsts along the way.

The shelter had to evacuate clients on June 20, 2013 because of the flood, and in January 2014 they received funding for a capacity of 24 beds to reopen post-flood.

"We also became one of the first emergency shelters in Alberta to embark on transitioning to a Trauma Informed approach in regards to domestic violence and abuse services," says Linette Soldan, Executive director of Rowan House

In March 2020 frontline staff at the shelter received a provincial award for their response to a positive COVID case in the shelter.

Rowan House continues to reach out to the community, holding its inaugural golf tournament this year and Soldan called it a big success.

"The symbol, the Rowan Tree is commonly known as the mountain ash and the berries are retained in the winter symbolizing the endurance of life through the dark of the year and the tree itself is said to afford protection to the dwellings by which it grew and the Rowan Tree was traditionally associated with peace, sanctuary, privacy and beauty, and the Rowan Tree embodies and symbolizes what we at Rowan House stand for, that every person is safe and secure and lives without violence and abuse," explained Soldan.

She says they actually have a couple of the trees in their yard.

Here's a look at what's happened over the last ten years:

Total Crisis Calls: 12,555

Admissions: 946 Women / 891 Children [1,837]

Outreach: 612 Individuals served

School Presentations: 999 presentations to 23,205 students

Healthy Relationship Groups: 181 Participants

Visit their website to see a detailed timeline of some of the other things that have happened over the last 10 years.