501(c)(3) EIN 8-0369020
Our Mission: To Provide safety, nurturing, and stability to children and families through quality services and trauma-informed care. Each year, over 100 kids — infant to age 14 — are brought to Watson Children’s Shelter for emergency care. Most children are brought to the shelter by social workers or the police. Our two shelters are designed to provide a safe, comfortable and welcoming stay for the children. Some of the children have never had a bedroom, never eaten a true family meal, and never had toys and art supplies. They often arrive with just the clothes on their backs. Here, they have their own bed, a place for their belongings, rooms for play, crafts, dining, and learning. We need help from the community provide them with clothing, nourishing home-cooked meals and everything they need to experience and enjoy childhood. In response to dramatically increased child abuse and neglect reports in Montana and an ever-growing need for shelter care services for children, in 2016 we decided as an agency to focus “upstream” to address the issues and concerns within families that were leading to the abuse and neglect of children in the first place. That focus led to the development of our evidenced-based Healthy Foundations family support program which officially launched in March of 2018. The program works to strengthen families by addressing stressors, barriers, and challenges, ultimately helping create stronger, healthier, and more stable family environments where children can grow and thrive. Thereby dramatically reducing the likelihood of child abuse or neglect from ever occurring.
