The Reality of Today & the Soapbox
I received a voice message a couple of weeks ago from a concerned pastor in your community. He was working with a grandma doing her best to raise her grandchildren. You and I know that today’s children are not growing up in the same world as their parents or even their older siblings. Social media, a pandemic, a recession, and a divided country (just to name a few) is taking a toll that is difficult to quantify. This grandma is facing challenges she never imagined. Her under 10 year old grandchild is extremely violent to others and with himself to the point of sniffing substances found in grocery stores in an attempt to dull his pain. His rage is unpredictable and intense. She fears for her safety as she is doing everything she can to try to love a child who seems not only unloveable, but a danger to himself and others.
Another family in your community is grappling with incest, violence, and PTSD. Dad is away working 10 hour shifts while mom stays home raising a little one who was raped before he could walk.
Rebound Families just finished our ReStart summer camp for middle schoolers in August. We are aware of the alarming research of how middle schoolers have been slipping through the cracks academically, socially, emotionally, and mentally. Our goal was to do our part in filling up these gaps with research based practices and unlimited acceptance. Along with fun games and outdoor activities we taught the difference between healthy and unhealthy friendships, how to set goals, how to think of others, how to monitor and be aware of emotions, and how our brains develop. Knowledge, and awareness can insulate us all. Each and every middle schooler attending camp was fighting a mental health battle from anxiety to self harm. Every.Single.Middle.Schooler in our camp and in your community is fighting an invisible war that many of us can’t even imagine.
And so I climb the soapbox with a megaphone and a pleading cry. Help us help them! Since 1996 Rebound Families has served and supported children and families and yet the world children are living in doesn’t resemble 1996.
You can
*offer your tax deductible donation via venmo, paypal, or check
*donate a dinner for our Roots Family Enrichment attendees
*become a tutor for middle schoolers after school one day per week in math and/or reading at our headquarters
*donate backpacks, feminine hygiene items, warm blankets
*become a volunteer at our Roots Family Enrichment program caring for children
*become a connect, empower, or restore donor - see our website for more information at https://www.reboundfamilies.org
**all volunteers must complete and pass a background check