Summerside's Hope House aims to give struggling mothers the help they need
CBC
Hope House, a new facility designed to help vulnerable P.E.I. mothers keep their children out of foster care, has opened in Summerside.
"We get to welcome our first residents today, have a mom and baby move in. We're just really, really excited that it's finally happening," executive director Tammy MacKinnon told CBC News Monday.
"It seems a little surreal that we're finally here."
The home has five beds available for new mothers who can stay for up to 15 months.
The home is designed for mothers facing different challenges. Perhaps they don't have the support they need from the people around them, or they lack a place to live, or they may be in the early stages of recovering from addiction.
Apart from shelter, Hope House offers three separate programs to help the mothers develop parenting and life skills. House manager Brenda Burston has received special training to teach the programs: Circle of Security, Nobody's Perfect and Active Parenting.
Both Burston and MacKinnon have years of experience as foster parents, and it was that experience that convinced them more support was needed.
Typically, said Burston, a mother will need to meet certain conditions to reunite with her children.
"We really saw a need for training opportunities for the moms," she said.
"A child is removed from their home, they're told that they need to do X, Y and Z in order to have that reunification happen for them, and the opportunities available to them were scarce. If I don't know how to parent, I need a program that's going to show me."
Each of the five rooms in the house has a bed and crib and all the other furnishings they would need. There is a large shared kitchen and a couple of sitting areas, including space where people can visit.
There are upcoming plans to create day programming, so parents living outside of Hope House can take advantage of it.
Hope House is not free. For those on social assistance, Hope House will work with that program. For others, Hope House charges about 25 per cent of the mother's income.
MacKinnon described Hope House as a huge undertaking, and said it has only been possible with an enormous amount of community support.
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