Dozens of kids play, in a classified location in the Bronx, safe from the brutality they fled with their mothers.
They take theater and dance classes, learn yoga and do arts and crafts. Sometimes, they just have some fun.
This summer camp for temporary residents at the Sarah Burke House, the state’s largest transitional shelter for victims of domestic violence, helps provide a welcome counterpoint to the torturous situations they escaped.
They’ve known hardship and upheaval. Some left their home borough and attended as many as three schools in a single year.
They’ve been through so much, but these kids still need a chance to be kids.
“I think it is really important that we address the clinical aspects of what is happening in the children,” said director Ted McCourtney. “But also that we just provide a fun, memorable, normal summer experience for the kids.”
Run by Sanctuary for Families, the shelter provides up to 58 families a temporary safe haven while preparing mothers to find permanent housing, shore up their finances and establish a stable life with their kids.
The families, whose identities are kept private to protect them from further abuse, arrive at a transitional shelter after six months in an emergency shelter. They can stay at Sarah Burke House for up to 15 months, though the average stay is about seven.
Programming for children — including a seven-week camp in the summer and after-school activities and classes from September through June — helps heal the youngsters’ emotional wounds and gives their mothers time to attend job-training classes.
The programs are conducted by licensed social workers, who have been trained to analyze the kids’ behavior through the lens of trauma.
The same staff members who give the children their snacks, watch them play and help them with their homework, meet with them for weekly counseling sessions.
“If a kid is having a really hard day, or has an explosion…we can provide that support one-to-one,” said Kristin Pleines, the coordinator of school-age children’s programming. “Having those services right there in the moment can be really helpful.”
Mothers say the counseling has produced noticeable improvements in their children’s behavior.
“My son used to act up and want to fight and kick and scream,” said one mother of two. “But now he is more mature.”
The kids credited Pleines with teaching one especially helpful strategy.
“If you’re feeling like a volcano, erupt it in your stomach,” said one young shelter resident.
The counselors say the sense of security and safety they feel while staying at Sarah Burke House are also essential to improving their behavior.
“That is not something to be taken for granted with these children,” McCourtney said. “They haven’t had a lot of that in their lives.”
