Taking the First Step
The Space We Take
Taking Back Control
While the efforts of Atlanta Children’s Shelter in offering support to the children are incredibly important, it’s worth mentioning that the support offered to parents is just as crucial to helping to solve this problem. Many find the plight of homelessness to be vacuous, as often caretakers will find themselves in a loop of problems that feed into one another. A parent who needs to go to work cannot take the child with them. But if they do not have money to pay for childcare, where shall the child go while earning income? If there are no trusted friends or family members to assist with childcare, how will they earn an income? Homelessness can also be a development that comes with changes in housing situations after the safe delivery of a child.
ACS works to provide valuable resources to help numerous families, including providing bus fare cards to families who need transportation to work but lack the means, as well as offering childcare services to alleviate parental concerns about their children while they work. Beyond this, the ACS school rooms also provide snacks and meals, including weekend snack offerings for children to take with them to have food when they leave the facility. Additionally, though only children under the age of 6 are allowed at the facility in the classrooms, snacks will also be sent home to brothers and sisters who are at school during the day as well. Their comprehensive approach to the collection also takes into consideration the experience of childhood for the child as well, filling in as many of the gaps as possible where a child facing insecurities can still take part in holidays. ACS collects toys, bicycles, and various other items throughout the year for its Christmas event. Parents are allowed to come in and pick the items for their children who are part of their program and extend this inclusivity to their siblings as well.
ACS’s well-rounded support system was outlined in person when the HanaByte team was invited to tour the facilities in person at the drop-off event. The team was met by our coordinator with a trolley so that items did not need to be carried in and we were escorted through a clean and extremely secure facility. Emily Stinson, Development Coordinator and HanaByte’s point of contact throughout the process scheduled time to personally meet with our team and provide a tour of the classrooms, storage, and office spaces. There were three layers of security clearance with locked doors before they reached the innermost part of the facility where the children were. They stay secure at the heart of both their operation and their facility, where the rooms are colorful, tidy, and filled with educational materials. The evidence of little ones was present in the art on the walls where tiny handprints were adorned on construction paper, where photos decorated the cabinets, and small snack cups were drying next to the sink. The little cubbies lined up on the walls had plastic bins for their belongings to stay in during their time in the facility, and despite her utmost professionalism, Emily seemed invested and passionate as she spoke about their mission and their work.
She spoke of their limited capacity and how they longed to provide more families with these resources to take their lives and their ability to protect their families back into their own hands. She spoke of the accomplishments of their program in successfully giving caretakers the tools they need to get back on their feet including financial counseling and more. One of the problems that ACS is facing, is for their toddlers (ages 2 -4), who share a classroom. Their goal is to have the class size broken down into two allowing the three and four-year-olds to have their own classroom as they’re at more advanced stages of development. Most parents withdraw their children after the age of five, as they would be eligible for public school and it’s easier to drop all of their little ones off at one location. Their pre-k class, as a result, has plenty of availability as a result. ACS is having active conversations about converting this room into a new classroom to better assist the developmental changes faced by children. Emotionally, the HanaByte team listened and learned about the experiences and opportunities that were being created down the road from where they lived and how helpful it might be for the team to come in and speak to parents about cybersecurity or other forms of work through their open education platforms.
Taking Back Control
If you or someone you know would like to be a part of giving back to Atlanta Children’s Day Shelter, visit their website today. You can also find additional resources such as financial counseling, mental health services, transportation assistance service offerings and more. If you would like to apply to their program or check availability for their waiting list, you can do so from their services page.
