This past week we were able to help out a mother who has found herself, and her family, in an emotionally toxic home environment. Sadly, she feels that this is being caused by her own mother, the children's grandmother, who also is residing in the home and refusing to leave. The children's mom now has a court date scheduled to have this remedied and is greatly relieved to feel that there is some end to emotional harm that is happening to her children.
So what did we do to help this situation? Very little actually. We spoke further to gather as much information as we could, so that we could best help her. We discovered that she was having difficulty with finding agency numbers to contact in the area she lived in (this we discovered being due to agencies covering multiple counties). We started an immediate search into locating appropriate agencies and provided that information to her. Then, after these agencies agreed upon the most obvious course of action, we dug into the state laws and how best to proceed. We passed on all information to her, so that she could proceed to do what she needed to do for her family.
What we didn't do... we did not try to resolve matters ourselves. We are neither trained nor licensed to provide any legal, medical, or counseling assistance. But we do have some skill in online research and are able to help point people in the right direction. We don't charge any fees, we don't ask for any donations. We have the time and ability to provide simple assistance in helping families help themselves. That is what we do. That is what we look forward to doing on a larger scale. Provide simple assistance, be it looking up agency numbers, information on how to proceed legally, writing letters, lending an ear, or simply asking others for advice. Someday, we hope to have a network of other volunteers, ready to help families find the resources that they need for their children.
This is what we do.... and it felt good being able to do it.
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