"Building Communities" Capital Campaign

Serving the Community

The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is an educational, cultural and social oasis for the Montreal region.  We predominantly serve the city’s diverse downtown west community, and provide a broad range of programs and services that build the community by:

  • decreasing the social isolation experienced by many of society’s disadvantaged people;
  • reintegrating disadvantaged people into society and working life; 
  • providing a better quality of life for society’s marginalized members; 
  • providing educational activities for children from underprivileged backgrounds and in danger of dropping out of school; and
  • providing support for literacy-challenged adults and children.

Our building is our home. It provides a vital physical location from which we are able receive more than 95,000 visits annually to the Library, and serve our users through the delivery of community-based activities that are hosted within our walls.

We are the only community library and centre in Montreal’s downtown district, west of the Bibliothèque nationale.

“Building Communities” Campaign

More than 2,500 people attend the Library’s cultural and educational programs annually. 90% of these activities take place on the Library’s 2nd floor and require our users to climb two flights of stairs to attend. For those with impaired mobility, such as a heart condition, a physical disability or simply through old age, the stairs represent a real problem.

According to Statistics Canada, 43.2% of Canadians aged 65 and over (a growing population) and 11.5% of Canadians aged 15 to 64 have a disability  - over half of our user community.

In addition, the Montreal Children’s Library in our basement is currently only accessible by stairs – leaving parents with children and stroller to negotiate this obstacle to access the Children’s Library.

Campaign Objective

Built in 1920 and having served the community superbly ever since, the Library’s home is in need of essential renovations and improvements to provide greater comfort and access to our building for all our users.

We have launched the “Building Communities” Campaign, chaired by former Chancellor of McGill University, Richard W. Pound, to raise $2 million from private sources. 

The Campaign will install an elevator – increasing access to our programming, conserve the building’s heritage status, and incorporate necessary health and safety improvements, such as updating the men’s washroom.

Support Your Library

The Atwater Library and Computer Centre is a vibrant, busy and thriving community resource. We provide highly utilised services to the members of our community that would not otherwise have easy access to educational, cultural and social opportunities. By investing in all members of our community, we create a better city in which to live and work.

Please help us to continue serving and building the community in which we live.  Please donate to the “Building Communities” Campaign.

Interestingly....

The Library operates debt free and receives only 11% of its core operating funding from governments, the balance coming from revenue-generating activities and private donations.

Parks Canada designated the building as a National Historic Site in 2005 and committed a matching grant of $425,000, which we have secured through private funds raised through the Campaign to date.

Become an Active Builder of Your Local Community

“Building Communities” Campaign Cabinet

Richard W. Pound, O.C., Q.C., Chair
W. John Bennett
Lionel J. Blanshay
Roy L. Heenan
Mary Leslie-Aitken
Hilary Pearson
David A. Tarr
Philip L. Webster