In 1970, a group of concerned citizens from the Kitchener-Waterloo area began meeting around their kitchen tables in response to their concern that there were few locations to receive information on family planning and sexuality issues. After a much planning, the first office opened at 35 Scott Street, Kitchener with a $6000 grant from PPFC in 1971. K-W Planned Parenthood was incorporated as a non-profit charitable organization in 1972. In 1978, service was expanded to include the Regional Municipality of Waterloo and the name was officially changed to Planned Parenthood Waterloo Region (PPWR).

PPWR has operated from several locations since those early 'kitchen table' meetings. For a short time the offices were located on Scott Street, at 251 King Street West, and from there they were moved to 119 King Street West. In 1993, the Board and staff began the process of looking for accessible office space. With the help of a small grant from the Ministry of Health to defray moving costs, and the work of many dedicated people, PPWR moved to 824 King Street West, in time for the April 1994 Board meeting.

Services have remained essentially the same since PPWR first opened. The agency's core programs include all-options pregnancy and sexuality counselling and outreach sexuality education workshops. In 1992, PPWR received a Trillium foundation grant through PPO to hire an education co-ordinator to establish a program entitled Parents for Healthy Sexuality. And, in 1997, the agency received a grant from The William H. Kaufman Charitable Foundation to launch a peer theatre-education program, using the play Live, On Stage, Uncensored. In the Spring of 2001 we received a grant from the National Crime Prevention Centre to expand our theatre-education program introducing a second play, Intimate Betrayal to compliment the first one.

In the August 1999 we moved to our current location in the Rotary Community Resource Village at 151 Frederick Street in Kitchener. We are very happy to be in such a warm and welcoming space where we are surrounded by other community organizations. Our programs continue to grow, while we continue to maintain the core services including options counseling, outreach education and a sexuality resource centre. The dedicated support of individual donors, foundations, service clubs, corporations and volunteers continue to sustain us, allowing us to offer our vital services in this community.

2002 was PLanned Parenthood Waterloo Region's 30th anniversary. In honour of this celebration one of our Board Member's has written a comprehensive history of PPWR, that includes personal interviews with volunteers and staff from the last three decades. Copies are available at PPWR for a minimum $5.00 donation.