How many of you reading this are parents? While this is a celebration of the kindness of people, of communities who see a crisis and come together to find a solution, this celebration comes out of grief, as so many of them do.
Imagine being an ER doctor or nurse on your shift at a local hospital when a two-year-old little girl is brought in. Her injuries are so severe that there is no way she is going to make it. Imagine then learning that this child has died at the hands of a family member.
Vanessa Behan
Vanessa was two years old when she died. She died from a ruptured bowel from a trauma to her abdomen. The examination after her death revealed that this was not the only injury this child had suffered.
This tiny human was riddled with healed and unhealed injuries, including both a fractured arm and a fractured skull, a head trauma resulting from having her hair pulled by twisting, as well as cigarette burns scattered across her little body.
A Community’s Plan
The community she lived in, Spokane, WA, was enraged and saddened that such a thing could happen right there in their community, right next door, it seemed.
In an effort to deal with the grief and to try to make sure this didn’t happen again, a handful of people worked to create a place, a space where parents in crisis could take their children.
The idea was that the services would be available any time, any day. It needed to be a safe space where a parent could take their children when they were having difficulty providing the safe nurturing home that all of our children deserve and need without judgement.
Since this day, the Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery has impacted the lives of more than 103,000 children and their families according to vanessabehan.org.
Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery
The Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery is a place where parents or families in crisis can take their children for refuge. The services offered include 24-hour childcare for infants and children through the age of 13.
For parents, they offer both parenting education as well as crisis counseling to help families heal and recover. They provide services to help families find other resources in the community to help them in their time of need.
The families they help include any family who has a need. These needs could be due to homelessness, substance abuse, domestic violence, or just a parent who is exhausted and worn out from the demands of parenting.
What Can We Do To Help?
There are so many ways to help these amazing people. You can volunteer, work for the center, provide donations, or even get an internship with one of the local colleges to finish out many community service degrees.
Ways to help
The Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery would not exist without its volunteers. Click here to view the center’s Volunteer Opportunities.
They offer Internships and Practicums for those who need this experience to finish their education. Click here for more information.
Donations are also accepted. Click here to learn more.
On occasion, they are also looking to hire. If you need a job but want to be part of helping a community, this could be a great place for you. Click here for more information.
Why
Many of our communities have gone through crisis and many more will go through crisis in the future. While I do not want to see this happen, I do love to see communities pull together to help those in need or to find ways to put an end to the crisis. This is the second article I have written to bring attention to both, the non-profits that work so hard to help make things better and to also bring attention to ways that we can all help, whether it means helping out foundations already in existence or starting one to fill a need yourself.
About the Author
Total Apex is an all-encompassing content producer. We provide heavily detailed articles every day on entertainment, gaming, sports, and so much more! Check out all our great sports content Total Apex Sports. Check us out on X @TotalApexEandG and our other sites: Total Apex Sports Bets and Total Apex Fantasy Sports.
