Why I Support The Child Center: A Mother’s Story

Katie Brennan, one of The Child Center’s board members, believes in the work we do because she has experienced firsthand how important clinical help can be for families.

katie brennan

Katie Brennan, third from left, at the 2012 Child Center Children’s Holiday Party

“When my second child was born in 2007, she was healthy and we brought her home from the hospital 36 hours after her birth. Everything seemed fine until she was three weeks old. She became listless and slept even more than she had in the days following her birth. It turned out that she had viral meningitis. Luckily, viral meningitis is much less serious than bacterial meningitis and her hospital stay was only three nights.

“But the stress of her illness coupled with post-pregnancy hormones left me anxious and depressed, even after her health returned. With professional help — a good therapist, temporary medication and then figuring out that running worked better for me than any actual medication — I was quickly back to feeling like myself, maybe even better than I had ever felt before.

“It was around this time that I was introduced to The Child Center of NY.

“The Child Center helps at-risk children and their families through early childhood education programs, individual and family counseling, substance abuse treatment, extended school-day programs, tutoring, recreation and college career readiness to prepare youth for jobs in the 21st century economy. I wanted to help families that were just like mine, minus the resources, to overcome obstacles and flourish.

“Spending my time serving The Child Center has inspired my own journey as a mother and reminds me at the core how much alike we all are. By providing other young children with equivalent educational opportunities to my own, I hope to help these children find the path to their success. And by offering other new mothers the same sort of help that I needed, I hope to assist in their well-being and the well-being of their families and create a brighter future for all of us.”


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