TLC is a children-first, secure attachment, trauma-informed, registered not-for-profit Early Childhood Development centre; Supporting vulnerable children and families in Walkerville, Gauteng. Founded as a family-run organisation, at the dawn of South African democracy in 1993, TLC is evolving our model to better support children and the communities we serve. Our model of supporting the child is ba
sed on empowering birth mothers, mother mentors, and foster mothers drawn from our community; offering them a safe and supported family environment using an attachment based, trauma informed care-giving style. By incorporating this concept into our primary programs, we are bolstering the fractured family structures that so many South Africans struggle with. For many years we enjoyed serving the beloved babies of our nation as a registered Child and Youth Care Center (CYCC) with the Department of Social Development. This season of our journey has since come to an end, however we remain a reputable board governed, fully B-BBEE compliant NPO with a strong presence in the social sector as a ground-breaking Center of Excellence in our field. As a child-centric organization, our primary purpose is to consistently find practical, best-practice, evidence-based solutions to supporting the vulnerable babies and children that are welcomed into our community. In order to reweave the damaged social fabric of the community, we must address the trauma layered through it. We have first-hand experience backed by comprehensive, ongoing scientific research showing that every baby coming into institutional care experiences trauma, no matter how loving the environment. If left unaddressed, it has long-lasting effects on them, their adoptive family, their community and beyond. We therefore incorporate the Trauma Informed Caregiving methodology into all our interventions and structures, with the main aim of reducing risk and trauma during the critical first 1,000 days of a baby’s life. It also serves to mitigate trauma already experienced by the older beneficiaries, our management team, caregivers, volunteers and the expectant women in our program. Watch this little video clip for an overview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw9cLBXjs4k
