Nicola's Churchill Adventure

My week in Boston had many highlights. After my initial culture shock of Cambridge I stretched my wings and got to see a few of the many lovely sides to this part of the world.

There was of course meeting incredibly talented and committed people working to better the lives of children and young people throughout Massachusetts and beyond. But more of the specific of that in another post. This one’s for the kids.

Of e of my absolute highlights of this week was getting to visit a local school. P-8 or around 5 years to 13 years. In a local neighbourhood, just under 400 kids, many with disadvantaged and challenging backgrounds. It was a beautiful school. I got there a bit early for the meeting and got to watch pickup.

I loved it. Watching the kids spill out, laughing, smiling and joking. Hugging the staff and high diving their bus drivers. Being handed over car by car to to their parents and caters by a woman I later realised was the Principal was so lovely to watch.

I then had the privilege of sitting in on a meeting regarding their involvement in the Connecting with Care program thanks to lovely Lisa Baron who oversees this amazing initiative as part of her work with https://aipinc.org/ The Alliance for Inclusion and Prevention. This program helps co-ordinate access to evidence based mental health support for these ‘kiddos’ as there staff referred to them. Each child or young person that the staff – Principal, AP, school nurse, social worker, family liaison person etc (!!!) had on their list or radar for needing support was discussed and allocated to receive this support. They way these staff spoke about their students, their families and their circumstances was beautiful to witness. Care, compassion, humour and genuine enjoyment of these kids was evident throughout as they sought to find the right fit of new social work intern or counsellor or other support for each child.

‘Oh you’re gunna love … they are just such a sweety. You two will be great together’

These staff knew their kids. They knew their families, their traumas, their successes. I loved being around them. This program is fantastic. The resources available to this school are impressive. They need and deserve them. They have them because of the hard work and consistent advocacy of their school leaders. I admire them and the work they do everyday. They are changing lives.

Other kiddie highlights included me tripping off to a ‘Family day’ a few ‘T’ stops away from where I was staying. Was such a cool day people watching – families of every background having a wonderful day of music, rides, kite flying. I found the diversity that I hadn’t seen in the first few days. Was a really lovely day.

Happy days