We made it! 😅 It’s the end of May and Stand Up & Sing for Kids is behind us - it’s been a busy (exciting, nerve wracking, you name it) month with CASA hosting the first ever Advocate Summit (an all day training and networking event for CASA volunteers), Parent to Child staff in Georgia for the Supervised Visitation Network Conference, full case loads, new faces around the office (more to come on that in the June newsletter) and Meaghan and the development team wearing out keyboards with all of the grants they’ve been writing! 

They say attention spans are shrinking, so here’s the condensed version: 

🎉 Stand Up & Sing for Kids Raised over $50k | The Sean Michael Dargan Band set the stage and you all showed up to bid, eat empanadas, play games, celebrate volunteers and help us keep our doors open for children impacted by trauma and adversity! Enjoy this event recap.

🧡 It’s Supervised Visitation Awareness Month | It’s our mission to strengthen families (literally) - keep scrolling to learn more about the impact of supervised visitation. 

🌟 Volunteer Spotlight | Join us in celebrating Family Interaction Specialist Heather Loomis and read more about how she goes above and beyond to meet the needs of families in our Parent to Child program.

🍆 Willy St. Co-Op Invests in Food for Healing | Canopy Center was one of 22 local organizations to receive funding from Willy St. Co-Op’s Community Reinvestment Fund. All the details here. 

📲 This Month’s Best Social Posts | Are you following? Your likes, comments and shares truly help spread awareness - this allows us to serve more children and families and secure important funding!  

We are excited to share that we raised: $51,638.71 for child abuse treatment and prevention in our community. Thank you, thank you, thank you to all who sponsored, donated to and attended Stand Up & Sing for Kids on May 9 at Goodman Community Center. 

We’ll be sharing a link to all of the pictures from the evening, in a future newsletter! 

Parent to Child is Canopy Center’s supervised visitation program. Supervised visitation is important to ensure the safety and wellbeing of children. In 2023, Parent to Child facilitated safe supervised visitation for 100 families! Here are several reasons why supervised visitation might be necessary:

Canopy Center is a proud member of the Supervised Visitation Network (SVN) - which establishes standards, promotes education and advances professionalism in the field of supervised visitation. Earlier this month, Parent to Child Director Emmy Lita and Intake Director Mollie Acker attended the SVN Annual Conference in Savannah, GA. This is an important conference to attend as supervised visitation is a niche service and there are limited resources for continuing education in our area. “We learn best practices from agencies around the world (there was even someone from Guam there this year!) and incorporate what we learn into our practice so we can better support and serve our families.” said Emmy. 

At Stand Up & Sing for Kids we recognized three volunteers for their outstanding service and commitment to Canopy Center. In honor of Supervised Visitation Awareness Month, we wanted to share about our Parent to Child Volunteer Award recipient, Heather Loomis. 

When Emmy presented Heather with this award, she opened with: “When I think of Heather, I think of the theme song to the movie Ghostbusters. ‘Who you gonna call? Heather Loomis!’”

Heather has been a volunteer with the Parent to Child program since 2022 - recently accepting an LTE position for the summer. Heather’s heart and passion for this work is in everything she does. She recognizes the importance of children having a relationship with their parents and how much that relationship can impact a child’s life. Heather approaches every family with dignity and respect. 

Here is just one example of why Heather earned one of our 2024 Volunteer Awards: 
Heather was asked to cover a visit for another Family Interaction Specialist for a few weeks. 

This was not a family she had worked with in the past and her first visit with this Mom and her four children under the age of eight was not an easy one. The kids were energetic and had a hard time regulating their emotions. They wanted to hit and kick each other and Heather spent most of that first visit playing referee and hoping not to get kicked or hit in the process! After the visit, she went home and thought about ways to help this family have a safe and successful second visit. 

The next week, at the beginning of the visit, Heather told the children they were not going to hit or kick each other. Instead, if they felt the urge to hit - they were going to clap their hands and if they felt the urge to kick - they were going to stomp their feet. She demonstrated what that would look like. Minutes later, when Heather saw one of the kids raise their hand, she immediately started clapping and asked the child to do so as well. She continued to do this throughout the visit. Mom saw that this was a successful intervention and started using it as well. Heather continued to use this strategy with the family in their next visit. Over time, the family’s visits became joyful instead of stressful. 

Heather looks at families through a lens of opportunity and growth not judgment. We are grateful for your Heather - during Supervised Visitation Awareness Month and every month. 🤗

Earlier this month, we joined 21 other local organizations at Willy St. Co-Op’s Aubergine Community Space where we received a grant from the Willy St Co-Op Community Reinvestment Fund. The grant: $2,650 is to purchase food (available for clients who come to receive services) and provide emergency food assistance in the form of grocery store and restaurant gift cards. 

Many of the children and families we serve struggle financially and while Canopy Center is able to provide most of our services at no cost - when children arrive hungry or families are concerned about where their next meal will come from it creates an unnecessary distraction from the hard work they are about to do. 

While we do serve clients during the day, a number of our programs take place after school and on weekends - to allow children and families to be in school and at work. When children arrive for services, they can have popcorn, fresh fruit or make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. This small amenity truly helps set children up for success - ensuring they can concentrate and increasing the probability of successful therapeutic outcomes. This can also alleviate stress for struggling families. 

When we have available funds, we also strive to provide some emergency food assistance in the form of grocery store or fast food gift cards. A gift card to a favorite fast food chain is also a great way to engage with teens who are involved in our court advocacy program. Sometimes, gift cards are used to take them for a burger and other times as a reward for a goal that was set. 

While the core of our services is to provide support, advocacy and therapy, these seemingly small items truly make healing and connection possible when engaging with families. 

Thank you, Willy St. Co-Op Community Reinvestment Fund for believing in our mission and supporting area families. Read more about the Community Reinvestment Fund and the projects they supported in 2024 here.

Do you follow Canopy Center on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn? If not, we’d love your support. Every like, comment and share helps spread awareness of Canopy in the community! 

Here's what got the most attention this month: 

Be a part of the important work Canopy Center does in the community.

Questions? Check out our website, canopycenter.org or email us at info@canopycenter.org