The Respite Center provides crisis and respite child care twenty-four-hour a day, seven days a week, for parents who are suffering from high levels of stress. It is our belief that a break from the difficult job of parenting will help families stay together and find renewed strength. Our social workers help parents weather a crisis by letting them know that they are not alone. We are available twenty-four hours a day to help a distraught parent at their wits end, take a deep breath and forge ahead, without lashing out at their children.
Our child care specialists provide children with a safe nurturing environment that helps them return to a state of equilibrium, express their feelings about their situations, and develop the social skills that will prepare them to be competent, functioning members of society. We do this through special activities and through play. Play is the childıs natural way to make sense of his or her world.
One of the most meaningful special activities that channels a child's play, is making art. Kids love to make art at the Respite Center. When it is hard to talk about how they are feeling, children can express themselves through art. We have had three projects in which art that children made at the Respite Center was displayed for the public, to deepen the understanding of how trauma affects children, and how art can help foster resiliency. We have had shows of quilts squares made by children, matted and framed drawings and paintings made by children, and persona dolls made by children. Each show has included quotes by children, explaining their thoughts and feelings about their artwork.
Right now, we are in the beginning stages of a fourth project that focuses more on children's writing and storytelling. In this new project, Illustrations of Hope, children are combining pictures with stories about their lives, their dreams, their struggles, and their strengths. This work will be exhibited in Madison at the public library in November 2004. We are using this project, like all of our work at the Respite Center, to offer hope to children and families with the least resources. Our message to them is that they, too, have a place in the world, and deserve shelter from the storm. We welcome feedback about our program and your experiences fostering hope and creating resiliency for children and their families.
Donations can be mailed to:
The Respite Center
2120 Fordem Avenue
Madison, WI 53704
Contact: Meg Miller, Director
Phone: (608) 244-5730
Website: www.respitecenter.org
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