Supporting Healthy Families

The ways we connect – big or small – to the children and families in our lives improves both individual well-being and that of our community overall. Quality, affordable child care is an important foundation for building strong families, resilient children, caring communities and economic prosperity into the future.

For these last two years, we have had a new focus on becoming a trauma-informed organization. At C.O.S.Kids, when we provide supports that strengthen families, their economic stability and promote parent-child attachment, we are actually building the safe, stable, nurturing environments they need to thrive.

COVID-19 has made life difficult for everyone – but especially children and families. Instability caused by school and workplace issues, social distancing, and other environmental forces can overwhelm even the most well-intended parents. Our community needs to create environments that support the most vulnerable and at-risk families.

We continue to see the effects of the isolation and anxiety of the past many month of the pandemic. We were able to raise additional scholarship funding to bring as many children as possible to our summer camps, so they could spend lots of time outdoors, away from all screens, and “put the child back in childhood”.

Supporting Single Parent Families

We all have a role to play in assuring safe, stable, nurturing environments for our children. Single income households are truly struggling with the inability of wages to keep up with the costs of living. They often spend 40-50% of their income on housing. And the cost of quality developmental child care is well over $10,000 a year. These parents desperately need assistance so they can be at work to support their family, while their child receives care that promotes positive early brain development, social and emotional health and early literacy. The number of single parents who need assistance to bridge the income gap continues to grow, creating waiting lists of families who need our help.

Our single parents particularly were faced with an impossible dilemma during remote learning -- to leave their young children at home alone or give up their only source of income. Our goal always is to match resource to need. We rearranged space, hired additional staff, and managed to help as many school age children as possible through remote learning.

Promoting Resilience

Resilience is the ability to cope with negative life events and challenges. It has been described as the capacity to “bounce back” from difficult situation and persist in the face of adversity. We won’t understand the full impact of the pandemic on our kids for years – but we can create resilience through compassion, engagement, and understanding.

To our community of supporters, we thank YOU for our ability to be resilient these past many months. Through your generosity, you have shown how much you care about some of the most vulnerable in our community. Because you care, we have been able to adapt and adjust, even expanding our mission as advocates for all children.