Salem-Based Program Offers Respite For Essex County Parents

Press release from Justice Resource Institute:

July 14, 2020

SALEM, Mass. — Parents forced to stay home with their children during the pandemic know that stresses arise when people try to work, study and play in the same space, day after day.

Those challenges can be especially acute when children have mental health issues, said Stephanie Sladen, executive director of Children’s Friend and Family Services (CFFS), which is based in Salem. So she worked with the state Department of Mental Health (DMH) to create a safe, innovative respite program for parents right in the family’s home.

The program, Discovery Within, assembles activity boxes designed to engage and entertain children ages 9 to 18 and maybe even get parents involved. It delivers the boxes every week to about 40 Essex County homes with children enrolled in DMH. CFFS staff serve as mentors, using Zoom to offer guidance and oversee the activities.

“We wanted to help DMH with something that might be falling through the cracks in the pandemic response,” Sladen said. “They saw a need to replace respite care, and our staff got right to work.”

CFFS created the program in just two weeks, soliciting the support of local businesses, such as Mud Puddle Toys, in Marblehead, to help fill the boxes in the height of the pandemic. Art Supply Wholesale, of Beverly, quickly filled a $700 order for markers, paper, Zentangle kits, which use structured patterns to teach drawing, and other arts and crafts supplies.

Appleton Farms, in Ipswich, provided free seedlings for gardening activities, and CFFS clinicians who are being trained to use horticulture as a part of therapy put together an online gardening tutorial.

And when children expressed an interest in baking, Carolyn’s Farm Kitchen, of Haverhill, put together 'Strawberry Crop Boxes,’ including handmade strawberry-rhubarb jam and shortcake biscuit baking mix.

“It give us great pleasure to know our products are part of such a positive interactive experience, while sharing a little taste of the season with local families,” said Carolyn Grieco, of Carolyn’s Farm Kitchen.

CFFS mentor Anthony Leone said parents tell him the weekly projects provide a welcome break. He pointed to one Gloucester mother, who said her 13-year-old son could not entertain himself with his toys, but with Discovery Within’s help immersed himself in making slime and writing and drawing on multiple pages in his journal.

Discovery Within is evolving as the summer progresses and the pandemic-related restrictions ease, said Christin Brown, CFFS Area Director Salem/Cape Ann and Flexible Supports..During the strictest period of the stay-at-home order, CFFS hosted online gatherings for children that could set the stage for in-person encounters as the restrictions loosen, helping to keep the summer interesting for children who normally would be attending camp. “There are a lot fewer activities available than usual this summer and we’re happy to help with that,” she said.

CFFS, a division of Justice Resource Institute (JRI), has served Essex County families for 187 years, providing counseling and other support for families that have suffered loss, trauma and mental health issues. The program did not allow the pandemic to stand in the way of its mission. Almost overnight, it switched more than 3,000 families to telehealth, providing dozens of Chromebooks to families and ensuring they had an Internet connection so that therapy sessions could continue uninterrupted.

“JRI didn’t hesitate to do it,” said Sladen. “We started giving the Chromebooks out before we started writing grants to fund them.”

The Essex County Community Foundation and the North Shore Community Health Network supported the program.

Because CFFS works with some of the most vulnerable communities in Essex County, it also delivered food, diapers and cleaning products to families, as well as air conditioners for people who could not leave their stifling apartments.

“We had to go back to our real social worker roots,” said Sladen. “It’s nice to see how our local partners came through,”

JRI is a social justice network of organizations that help underserved individuals, families, and communities with compassion and dignity. JRI provides foster care, help for children who have suffered trauma as a result of abuse and neglect, shelter for homeless families, assistance for people with disabilities, education and residential services for youth in crisis, and a range of other services.

This press release was produced by Justice Resource Institute. The views expressed here are the author's own.