Guest blog: Children's Cottage Society

Hey, Local Laundry fam - happy Sunday! Today we have a very special guest blog from our friend Elisha, manager of the Children's Cottage Society. After getting into a little trouble with our friends at Lil Orchard Baby Food, we decided to make our April donation go to the Children's Cottage Society. 

Keep scrolling to find out about the Children's Cottage Society, Elisha's impact in the community as a manager, and how you can get involved! Read, scroll and enjoy!

Let's dive into it!

“Being a mother is learning about strengths you didn’t know you had, and dealing with fears you didn’t know existed.” – Linda Wooten

Like so many parents out there, they have dreams of having happy, joyful kids who sleep through the night, have a lot of friends and who do well in school. They envision themselves to be able to provide their kids with everything they need including 3 meals and day and a safe home. They tell themselves they will be a calm, understanding parent who never loses their patience with their child. However, the parenting journey just isn’t glitch free… and that’s okay!

For so many Calgary families each year, reaching out during a time of crisis brings them to the Children’s Cottage Society. These families experience challenges because of life circumstances. They may be facing the stresses of low income, mental or physical health issues, the circumstance of single parenting or the realities being a member of the marginalized group. Many are young moms struggling with postpartum depression or a fussy baby. Also, many of these families are living in poverty and struggling to secure housing.

There are so many families out there that can relate to any of these circumstances listed. The Children’s Cottage Society is here for them, without any judgment. In 1986, the Cottage started as a six-bed Crisis Nursery in Killarny. The Nursery was the first of its kind in Alberta, and today we are one of only three Crisis Nurseries in Canada! In 1994, thanks to the Calgary Home Builder’s Foundation, The Children’s Cottage was able to move from its original building to a purpose-built Crisis Nursery in Bridgeland where 14 children who are under the age of 8 years of age receive help daily.

The Children’s Cottage Society has been s growing and expanding its services in response to increasing demand from the community. Today our core services are located in different parts of the city – from our Crisis Nursery in the northeast to Brenda’s House in the southwest, to our leased community services office in northwest Calgary.

We proudly celebrated 31 years of caring in 2017 and having supported and offered hope and care to over 64,000 children and their families during a time of crisis in their lives.

We are so fortunate to have become such good friends with Kristi and Lil’ Orchard Baby Foods. Janet Hettler, our Crisis Nursery Manager, ensures the babies that stay with us eat her baby food as much as possible… and they love it! We very much appreciate that Kristi connected us with Local Laundry. It is such an honour to be partnering with two incredibly generous and community-minded local businesses. Thank you to everyone who makes an online purchase from Lil’ Orchard or Local Laundry in April. You are helping to ensure that Calgary’s children and families find support at the Children’s Cottage Society during a time of crisis.

If anyone would like to learn more about the Children’s Cottage Society please contact me at ejackson@childrenscottage.ab.ca or 403-283-4200 ex.221. I’d love to hear from you! You can also visit our website at www.childrenscottage.ab.ca

Warmly,

Elisha Jackson

Fund Development Manager

Children’s Cottage Society

Tune in next week to see what we have on the blog! If you or someone you know would like to be a guest blogger on our blog drop us a line! Chat at chaaa next week Canada - stay local!