World of Good, Children in Crisis Style

Welcome back to another World of Good (WOG) entry here at The Scratching Post. I've taken an unwanted sabbatical from these, but I think you'll find that my return to WOGging is with a bang. Children in Crisis (CIC) is that good.

CIC seeks to provide a stable, loving home for children who have been taken from severely abusive families in Northwest Florida. There, the foster care system is severely overtaxed and CIC will provide an additional resource for the state's social workers to house children who are fresh out of very bad circumstances. In order to meet this need, St. Simon's-on-the-Sound Episcopal Church and Shalimar United Methodist Church is creating Children's Neighborhood, an emergency shelter for infants, toddlers and young children.

As you read their story, what jumps out at you is how the volunteers from these churches saw that these children were in desperate situations and needed a safe and stable place to go. The folks of CIC put together this video that describes what they do and how they got started.

According to their most recent newsletter, Children's Neighborhood is well on its way to completion.

By fall 2007, we’ll have the capability to help with the severe shortage of foster homes in our community and address the urgent need of an emergency shelter for infants, toddlers and young children. At present, children are being placed in over capacity foster homes, placed out of their county, moved from foster home to foster home and siblings are frequently separated. The Children’s Neighborhood is being built on a 20 acre site made possible by a long term charity lease from Okaloosa-Walton College.

Florida doesn't lack for enjoyable recreational opportunities. There's plenty of fun to be had fishing, boating, going to Disneyworld and lots more. It looks like the people of CIC have found an opportunity to have the most fun of all: helping tiny tots who have nowhere else to turn. At the end of the day, I'll bet they're the happiest folks around. Stop by the CIC website and see if you agree. There you will find plenty of ways you can help, no matter where you live. In any case, I'm sure you'll agree that they're doing a World of Good.

For more WOG posts and an explanation of why we WOG, check out this post.