Children’s Aid Society of Ottawa says its still here for families regardless of COVID-19

“This is an unprecedented time. We know parenting in the best of circumstances can sometimes be a challenge,” Kelly Raymond, executive director of the Children’s Aid Society (CAS) of Ottawa, said.

“With the necessary and essential school and daycare closures moving to more virtual support platforms, it can place additional stressors on families, and these difficulties can only be made worse during COVID.”

The CAS of Ottawa knows that families continue to struggle — with or without a COVID-19 pandemic. And they want the city to know that they are still there to provide support to families no matter what.

“There might be some financial pressures put on families and,or related layoffs as a result of COVID, so for some of the families that the CAS works with, we know that access to social support networks might not be available or accessible, or for some reason have become disconnected,” she said. “It’s to these families who we believe feel isolated and unsupported and we want to reach out to them and say that they’re not alone and that there is support available and that it takes an awful lot of courage when you’re stressed and feeling alone and isolated.”

Whether someone experiences an event involving another family, or a family feels they need that extra bit of help, Raymond says it’s important that the community continue to come together as one to help those families and children as soon as possible.

“The Ottawa community has shown exceptional leadership during this pandemic, where all the service providers — including the schools, hospitals, the police, the City of Ottawa, the mental health and addiction service agencies, the sector that provides support to women and children who are victims of violence, services to newcomers, the francophone community — they’ve all come together to help provide that support,” she said. “It’s to these families we know are struggling during this time. Before a situation escalates, call the CAS. Ninety per cent of our work is to support families and create safe environments for their children.”

“Child and youth safety and wellbeing is a community response. If you feel that a peer, friend or neighbour, reach out for support before that situation escalates to a crisis situation,” Raymond added. “We all have child safety and wellbeing at heart so when we come together to support we can avoid hopefully situations of maltreatment or neglect.”

Even if parents feel like they need a bit of extra support, they themselves can reach out to the society and tell them their situations and the society may be able to help, or at least point the in the right direction. 

The Children’s Society of Ottawa remains open and avilalable, Raymond stresses.