{"id":24744,"date":"2019-09-20T17:43:57","date_gmt":"2019-09-20T21:43:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=24744"},"modified":"2019-09-20T17:46:30","modified_gmt":"2019-09-20T21:46:30","slug":"yellow-brick-house-enercare-partner-to-help-brighten-kids-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/yellow-brick-house-enercare-partner-to-help-brighten-kids-lives\/","title":{"rendered":"Yellow Brick House, Enercare partner to help brighten kids\u2019 lives"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than ten kids were inside Yellow Brick House,\nperhaps peeking through the curtains, as the adults did their thing outside.\nThey could see the progress unfold, waiting impatiently for their chance to\ngive it a whirl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But one little straggler was a bit late coming back to\nthe shelter from school on Thursday afternoon and, as he rounded the corner\ninto Yellow Brick House\u2019s backyard, he paused as his eyes widened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His verdict? \u201cThis is so cool!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If they had been in earshot, it would have further warmed\nthe hearts of the nearly 20 volunteers who came together during the school day\nto build an expansive new playground from the ground-up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new playground was constructed in partnership with\nThe Fresh Start program, Enercare\u2019s program of corporate giving, which puts\ntogether kits for women and children leaving shelters like Yellow Brick House\nto start their new lives afresh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thursday\u2019s build, however, was something new \u2013 and\nsomething big \u2013 for the program, and it was a challenge they were all too happy\nto meet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The results were inaugurated by a host of dignitaries\nincluding MPP Michael Parsa, Councillors Wendy Gaertner and Rachel Gilliland,\nand Yellow Brick House Executive Director Lorris Herenda, keeping speeches to a\nminimum so as to not prolong the excitement for the kids inside. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHere at Yellow Brick House, we provide life-saving\nservice and prevention programs to individuals, families and communities that\nhave been impacted by violence,\u201d said Ms. Herrenda. \u201cSpecifically, here at the\nshelter, we provide a safe haven for women and children to escape violent and\nabusive homes. When they come to our shelter, they are basically coming with\nthe clothes on their back and they come here and they are scared. They are\nuncertain about the future. They are worried about their children, worried\nabout what tomorrow is going to bring. They come to the shelter really\nunprepared for what the shelter\u2026 They are starting from Ground Zero. You can\nonly imagine the amount of courage it takes for a family to leave their home\nand come to an unknown situation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut it doesn\u2019t take very long that they are here and the\nwomen and children are amazed at the amount of care they receive not only from\nstaff but also from the community. The Fresh Start program that we have been in\npartnership with since 2016, has assisted over 75 families with the Fresh Start\nkit since its inception. These women and children feel empowered. They finally\nfeel that somebody cares for them, supports them, and they actually start\nplanning a vision to live a life that is free of violence. Once again today,\nEnercare showed to the women and children how much they matter, how much you\ncare, to make this shelter a safe place and a fun place for the kids by\nbuilding this playground. We are just extremely proud of. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is going to make over 100 children a year happy at\nthis shelter because that is how many children come to us every single year at\nthis location.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time of Thursday\u2019s build, thirteen kids were\ncalling the shelter home, sharing 25 beds and seven cribs with fellow\nresidents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is about giving people who are transitioning from\ntemporary housing or temporary circumstance into a regular or more permanent\nsituation, provided with the necessities,\u201d said John Rebick of Enercare. \u201cThis\nis a perfect offshoot of this. Yellow Brick House is our inaugural charity\npartner. They had a requirement for a new playground and it seemed like a\nperfect fit for what we\u2019re trying to do\u2026 in providing a better and safer space\nfor the kids who are in this shelter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor me personally and for the volunteers and\norganization, it is about giving back to the people in difficult situations and\nprovide them with things that will make their circumstances that much better,\nreally step back to see how fortunate you are in your own life to be able to\nhelp those who might be going through a more difficult time to be able to pull\nthemselves out, empower them and be able to right what is going on in their\nlives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t be more excited and honoured speaking here\ntoday. The Fresh Start program is our signature corporate responsibility\nprogram allowing us to give back to the communities we live and work in, and\nthe Fresh Start kits are kits of necessities and some luxuries, clothing,\nbedding and kitchen utensils that allow people who are transitioning from\nshelters and transitional homes into homes of their own. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cToday is even more exciting because this really is\nunique. It is a whole new fresh start. Take away an old playground structure\nand put in this beautiful new structure. Here, we had our ambassadors here, our\nWomen in Leadership, to help put this together so that this can be a fun, safe\nplace for children who are escaping violence and we couldn\u2019t be more honoured\nto support this\u2026 and to allow your funds to help more women and children in\nneed and allow this to be a better space. Thank you for allowing us to help.\u201d<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir More than ten kids were inside Yellow Brick House, perhaps peeking through the curtains, as the adults did their thing outside. They could see the progress unfold, waiting impatiently for their chance to give it a whirl. But one little straggler was a bit late coming back to the shelter from school […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":24732,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2019-09-19-21.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6r6","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-21 18:33:28","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}