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One early dream of Jessie's Board was the provision of 24 hour childcare for use by mothers under stress. The committee responsible got together with Family Day Care Services, (FDCS) a Metro Agency which supervises private homes for infant and childcare. 24 hour Respite Care was the result and is now a metro-wide service. This innovative program, which exists nowhere else, allows mothers to place their babies in approved private homes for periods of up to three weeks. FDCS has an office and staff at the Centre. Placement is by pre-arrangement in order to cope with moving, exhaustion, illness or crisis. In case of emergency, placement can be done at once. Down in the basement at Jessie's there is another unique service which provides baby and maternity clothing, furniture and toys. "The Swap Shop". All items are taken on a loan basis and are swapped back when no longer useful. Volunteers and mothers are heavily involved in processing incoming items and washing, mending and fixing. Jessie's large Board of Directors has considerable experience and expertise. Various committees, each of which includes a staff member, handle all major aspects of the Center's decisions. The staff is a feminist collective and each staffer assumes equal responsibility for maintaining the program. They meet weekly and have daily updating sessions. The budget for the year ending March 31, 1984 was approximately $225,000. The majority of funding ($175,000) comes from the provincial Ministry of Community and Social Services. Jessie's is a registered charity, and the United Church and various corporations and foundations and Board fund-raisers contribute the balance of funding. This coming year, a detailed process evaluation will be supervised by Dr. Jack Williams of the Health Care Research Unit, at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Medicine. The staff at Jessie's welcomes visitors and will provide tours. They have extensive descriptive print resources to send out and staff are available to speak to interested groups. This pilot project, unique in Canada, unquestionably utilizes its human and financial resources in a full, creative and innovative way. It will serve as a welcome model for those setting up similar centres in the future. For further information contact |
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