A few clicks for a good cause

Remember when I promised I wouldn’t grovel for your votes in the Canadian Weblog Awards? Well, I promise, I still won’t grovel for your votes for the Canadian Weblog Awards.

But, if you’re feeling generous with your clicks this week, could you please take just a minute or two and help a wonderful Ottawa organization that needs some clicky love? Main Street Community Services in Stittsville is the kind of organization that you’ve likely never heard of unless you need their services — and then, you find that they’re a godsend. They offer help to the hardest-to-serve special needs children in the city of Ottawa, including programs and services like developmental respite, mentoring, social skills training, behaviour management, parent support programs, individual and family counselling, developmental play groups, and a social skills day camp known as Discovered Treasures.

Main Street Community Services has applied for a grant through the Aviva Community Fund. What is the Aviva Community Fund? According to their FAQ,

1. People like you share ideas to create positive change in their community
2. Canadians vote and the top 90 ideas compete in the Semi-Finals
3. Canadians vote for the semi-finalists and the top 30 make it to the Finals
4. Judges score and rank the finalists and the top ideas share the $1,000,000 Aviva Community Fund

You can read more about their proposal here, but in short, here is what Main Street Community Services would like to do:

If we were to be winners of the Aviva Community Fund our top priority would be to purchase a larger facility that would allow us to more adequately meet the needs of our current clientele, as well as providing us with the ability to extend our services to so many more people in Ottawa, Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec. With a new facility we could not only expand the current programs, but also increase the number of respite opportunities for countless tired and overwhelmed parents.

So how do I know about all of this? Mary and I are on the same parent council, and this is Mary’s story.

Main Street is the not-for-profit organization that is our lifeline in helping with our precious son Ty. He goes to a day program there, as do many other of the hardest to serve special needs children in the city of Ottawa. Additionally there are many children who go to after school programs and group therapies. As well, Main Street is so remarkable with their ability to deal with challenging children that they also have permanent guardianship of another group of children that live in some of their 5 respite homes (that are also open to families in need of help) .

I’d like to highlight that not only do the kind people of Main Street work with the children, they do so with empathy, caring, great thought to each individuals needs and love. More than once I’ve seen staff members cry over the success, and unfortunately also the struggles, of their charges.

Let me explain how Main Street changed our life:

Imagine that your child had extreme challenging behaviour. You’ve been kicked, threatened, hit, etc. woken at all hours, and to make matters worse, the school system and therapists were at a loss of how to deal with it, so you’re essentially on your own. You feel like an outsider in your community and don’t know where to turn. That’s how we felt 2 years ago.

Now, thanks to the incredible work of the angels/members of Main Street, we don’t feel so alone. Ty is learning in a program for 4 hours a day, and he spends a couple of weekends a month in a home where, we’re told, he’s a dream child! He loves going to his program, asks to go to respite and is learning to empathize with, befriend and even help others, and live in our world. On top of that, those that help him daily, recognize what a special kid he is and they love him almost as much as we do. Can you imagine our relief?

So how can you help. It’s so easy. First, register with the Aviva site by clicking on this link

http://www.avivacommunityfund.org/ideas/acf5532

For the next eight days simply go to the website and click on the big yellow VOTE NOW button, making sure you’re voting for “A Place of Our Own”. It would also help if you could get as many of your family, friends and associates to do the same.

That’s it. 8 clicks.

Our family thanks you, as does Ty and all the members of Main Street Community Services.

Mary only sent her plea out to a few friends via e-mail, but as soon as I saw it, I thought of my big, beautiful and generous bloggy community, and how they might like to lend a few clicks to the cause. Because? You’re wonderful like that.

You don’t have to be local, or even Canadian, to vote. You just have to care enough to toss a few clicks to help out an organization that helps families when they need it the most. Please take a moment to register and vote for Main Street’s “A Place of Our Own.” And then click each day for the next eight days. Such a small thing to ask, such an enormously worth cause.

Thank you!

Author: DaniGirl

Canadian. storyteller, photographer, mom to 3. Professional dilettante.

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