I have the extreme privilege to work as the Mother-Child Intervention Worker at Logifem. I work with mothers who are experiencing difficulties: financial instability, mental illness, addiction, immigration, independent living skills, conjugal violence. Logifem offers the women a safe and supportive environment to stabilize their situation and to help them to establish healthy daily routines.
The women establish three tangible objectives that they hope to achieve within a three month time span. These objectives are personal to them and their needs. My role is to support these women towards their objectives and to accompany them when it is needed. I provide the women with resources, community integration, help them to focus on their objectives, and a listening ear. The women and I meet at least once per week to discuss their experience at Logifem, the steps they have taken towards their objectives and which steps they will take in the future. The women express their needs to me and I do my best to provide with support and guidance to fulfill this need.
Many of the women struggle with parenting issues as they themselves lacked good parental role models. I provide the women with parenting strategies and stress the importance of engaging with their children in order to solidify the mother-child bond. As the mothers in the program are solely responsible for the care of their children, they are encouraged to make use of halte-garderies in the community as well as day cares for respite.
In assisting these mothers to stabilize their situations and supporting them in their roles as mothers, Logifem’s Mother-Child program can break the cycle of instability for future generations. There are very few resources available for women in difficulty who have children where they can stabilize their situation for an extended period of time. This makes Logifem’s Mother-Child program so significant.