A small group of us moms were on a mission to bring awareness, education, and support to breast/chest feeding parents and their journey through it. It is a voluntary peer support group and our sole purpose is being there for those in need. We trained under the beststart.org program from a Baby Friendly Initiative leader in the Fraser Health Authority, but are not affiliated with FHA. Our initial plans to start an in-person group were sidelined by covid, and we were no longer able to meet in the space that was donated for our group to use. Upon talking with other moms who knew about these grants, I applied so we could get funding for a zoom account and continue our group via an online platform. Thank you so much for this grant! In our opening statements we were able to acknowledge the Vancouver Foundation and the Delta Foundation for the generous gift of allowing us to hold a virtual space to continue meeting.
We got right to work creating new posters and advertisements for our group, and we were able to reach and offer support to over a dozen new moms with various issues. All the moms that participated were grateful for the space to open up, talk, connect, and learn. We were even able to host a session in the park! (1 time and covid protocols in place)
Meeting new little ones, their mamas, and supporting them through tears, laughter, and frustrations will always be memories we treasure. Currently, we are on a break to re-group and assess what the best course of action is for future meetings. Although our virtual platform was helpful, we found what most new parents are looking for is tangible connection and an excuse to leave the house. Also, us volunteer mamas now have older little ones and our maternity leaves are up, so we are talking about new times and ways to host meetings. (Maybe twice a month with 1 in-person and 1 virtual, instead of the weekly virtual.) So as we ponder what new options there are for future meetings, we are grateful to have had this opportunity and support from the Delta Neighbourhood Small Grants!
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