Santa Barbara nonprofit that provides early childhood education to kids facing adversity seeking donations to help more families
SANTA BARBARA, Calif.—Guests described Tuesday’s “Lunch with Love” event as an inspirational afternoon that opened their eyes to the importance of healthy childhood attachments in building lifelong resilience.
“Early relationships really set the foundation. It's the blueprint for all the relationships that will come after. And that's why we put so much emphasis on that relationship between a child and their caregiver during those critical years where the majority of their brain develops. And again, that blueprint is established,” said Calm Director of Clinical Operations Ashleigh Irving.
Storyteller Children’s Center described how their teachers help families and their young ones break cycles of generational poverty and trauma.
They emphasized that the stages between birth to 5 years is a pivotal stage that impacts everything from how kids love, grow, and learn.
“So many of us don't understand the concept of infant early childhood mental health. Like, you know, why could someone need that? But when a child or even an infant in utero is exposed to chronic stress, that can affect them from birth. And so that's why early intervention is so important,” said Storyteller Children’s Center Executive Director Gabriella Garcia.
Sources of toxic stress include everything from poverty and homelessness to violence and neglect.
But in order to address these underlying factors that create adversity for families it’s also important to address mental health.
That is why Storyteller has formed partnerships with organizations like Calm, which focuses on catching childhood trauma early on.
“When we talk about infant and early childhood mental health, you cannot talk about that without also thinking about the adult in that child's life. A child who is disregulated will never be regulated by another disregulated adult. So our services at home are really focused on the child and that caregiver, whether that's caregivers in the classroom or the parent at home, we're really thinking about them as a unit,” saidCalm Director of Clinical Operations Ashleigh Erving.
Storyteller Children’s Center currently serves over 300 family members in Santa Barbara, but they are calling on the community to donate to their organization so they can help transform the lives of more families.
