COVID comfort kits for children from Moose Jaw Transition House a huge hit
A new initiative from the Moose Jaw Transition House looking to support children’s mental health during the pandemic really took off in April, as families lined up to receive a COVID Comfort Kit for their kids.
Each comfort kit was tailored to an age range and contained activity items like superhero capes, crafts, and journals alongside advice and methods to help parents talk to their children about their mental health.
“Every item in them had either self-directed, for older kids, or parent-directed instructions on things you could do, questions you could ask so kids could really explore the feelings they’re having right now,” said Transition House executive director Jenn Angus. “They’re ways to open those doorways and start exploring those feelings and talk about coping skills.” With kids spending more time at home due to the on-and-off isolation measures, remote learning, and cancelled extracurricular activities, the Transition House was feeling concerned about how children are handling their stress.
“We know that our kids are not doing awesome right now,” said Angus. “There’s increased domestic violence reports, and that means children are seeing more domestic violence in the home. There’s less outlets for them to explore those thoughts and feelings [and] children of young ages are starting to report things like anxiety, depression, even eating disorders.” The goal of the campaign was to offer a helping hand to children and parents, and provide some support in developing healthy coping habits when faced with difficult times — but also to put some fun activities into kids’ lives. Comfort Kits includes things like face masks to decorate, dreamcatcher kits, anxiety colouring books, and a craft to make a worry doll, to name a few items. Angus said the kits proved extremely popular, and all of the pre-made kits were spoken for very quickly after being announced on social media on April 20. “We had 70 kits and they’re all out now,” said Angus, a week later. “They went so fast, we were actually pretty surprised [but] I think families are just looking for anything right now to help their kids out, to try and create moments that are going to be memorable and less anxious in the future.”
The Transition House created the kits thanks to grant funding provided by the United Way Emergency Community Support Fund, initially obtained to expand the non-profit’s volunteer program. Volunteers put together the kits and delivered them entirely free of charge. Although all of the kits are already gone, Angus is hoping to possibly provide more in the future if more funding can be obtained.
She felt that the idea not only provided some relief for families, but also helped let people know about the ways that the Transition House can help more than just women in need.
“The way people traditionally think about the Transition House is that it’s very much a shelter, and we’re so much more than a shelter,” said Angus. “We really want people to know that we have outreach programs, we work on prevention; we are very community involved. People can reach out to us for support.”
Angus encouraged parents to reach out to the Transition House if they feel their children are struggling, as the non-profit has programs that may be able to help.