Conscious Real Estate donates to the Tennyson Center
After our recent clients closed on the sale and purchase of their home, they chose to donate to the Tennyson Center for Children at Colorado Christian Home. These clients wanted to donate to an organization that benefitted at-risk youth and wanted to choose an organization which was close to their home.
Tennyson Center for Children at Colorado Christian Home is one of the Rocky Mountain region’s leading treatment centers and K-12 schools for emotionally and crisis-affected children and youth, particularly those suffering from abuse and neglect. They serve children ranging in age from 5-18 and are dedicated to ensuring that these amazing kids having the fighting chance they deserve at a satisfying and fulfilling life.
Having worked with at-risk youth for five years prior to real estate, I very much enjoyed touring the facility. The Tennyson Center utilizes a great deal of effective occupational therapy and traditional therapies to help the youth deal with their traumas.
As you can see from the photo, my clients brought their baby, James, on the tour. Tia, the Tennyson staff member who led our tour, used James as an example for how children can be affected when raised in a neglectful situation. When James became fussy throughout our tour, Tia pointed out how his parents used various techniques to calm and soothe him – maybe holding him differently, bouncing him a bit, or speaking to him gently. When parents use these typical techniques to soothe their baby or child, the child learns trust and eventually learns to self-soothe with age.
When a child is neglected, they don’t learn these ways to calm themselves. When you compound this with abuse, the child is constantly living in a heightened state of anxiety, and can display a great deal of emotional problems and has difficulty functioning in classrooms or other structured environments. Tennyson Center addresses many of these issues in their classroom settings and in their occupational therapy rooms. A child can go to the occupational therapy room and assess what level of intensity their body is experiencing that day and then choose one of the coping methods, such as bouncing on a trampoline or putting their body through the “squeeze machine.” The child can then reassess how they are feeling after their therapy. Over time, the child learns that they can calm themselves down through various techniques, so they will be more adaptive, rather than reactive to life’s situations and stressors.
This is just one of the many wonderful ways that the Tennyson Center helps children who have suffered from abuse and neglect. If you notice the blue pinwheels in our photo (or if you have noticed them around town), these are for recognition of National Child Abuse Prevention Month, which occurs every April. Although it is never enjoyable to learn about the abuse and neglect that happens to young people, it was very meaningful to be able to donate to this wonderful organization during the month of April.
If you would like to learn more about Tennyson Center, you may follow them on Facebook or Twitter. You may also donate or consider volunteering with Tennyson Center.
