Stephen Crotty - YWCA Banff

Stephen came to the Rockies straight out of U. of Waterloo and immediately fell in love….with Banff.  He has made his home in the Bow Valley for the last four decades and over that time has become well versed on the challenges and responsibilities of living in a National Park community.  Stephen made a career shift in 2009 and joined the YWCA of Banff as Director of Operations after many years in the hospitality and tourism business.

The YWCA of Banff is uniquely positioned as a provider of key community Programs and Services and, in addition, operates the largest affordable housing complex in the community and a thriving social enterprise hotel.  Stephen was invited by the municipality to sit on the Banff Community Housing Strategy Committee in 2013, in which he acted as Vice-Chair.  Housing was “identified as a key component of our community goal of fostering a healthy, balanced community” and the ensuing comprehensive Strategic Housing Plan was adopted by Town Council in 2014.

Stephen was accepted into the inaugural “Getting to Maybe: A Systems Leadership Residency” at the Banff Centre for Leadership in 2015.  His working project of utilizing shipping containers for affordable housing solutions was pioneered through this intense program initiating “systems change in service of a better future for humans and all of our relations”.

As the Chief Operations Officer of the YWCA, Stephen represented the organization as a Community Partner for the development of “A Step by Step Guide to Developing Affordable Housing”, a nationally accessible toolkit for communities by the Sustainable Housing Initiative and the Alberta Rural Development Network.  Stephen is the YWCA of Banff Project Manager for the development of an innovative, affordable housing complex breaking ground this April, and yes, it will be using shipping containers.