Child Development Center

Meet our Samaritans: An Interview with Gwendolyn Mayfield

October 27, 2017 by Justin Feltman

Gwendolyn Mayfield joined the team at Samaritan Inns as the Childcare Center Director this June. She has over 30 years of experience in childcare and a deep passion for creating a safe and fun learning environment for each child, as well as establishing holistic relationships with their parents and family. We asked her a few questions about her experience thus far.

Tell me a little bit about each of the kids at the Clark Inn and the dynamics and relationships you’ve developed with each of them.

Well my first was Brendan. His mom graduated. She was a very supportive parent and Brendan was very curious and independent but yet…what would you say…he wasn’t excited about others getting my attention. He was pretty much like, “This is my Gwendolyn!” He started out with other kids but for three weeks it was just him and me doing everything we can. Brendan was very smart. Mom must have been reading with him because anything I taught him he was just going to the next level. [For example] Geometry; I sat down with these different kinds of shapes and put them together to show him how you can make different things with the shapes by putting them together. He made some things I hadn’t even thought about.

Right now we have Miracle, who is my oldest, and she will be five in January. She is very bright. Her brother Messiah does everything his sister does. He lives for his sister. Just recently he’s started to get a little bit independent; just a little. Just enough so that I can get him to sit down and focus on his art, or whatever activity we are doing, and he sticks with it instead of following her.

My littlest one is Kahlie! She’s so feisty. So smart. She knows lots of words. Sometimes she’ll say words I didn’t even know she knew. But all of them are sweet hearts. I love my little ones, I really do! But I love it when I see them getting to the next level. Leaving the anger behind.

You had a graduation this past weekend. Can you talk about what it’s like to see the moms and their children graduate?

Oh, it was so nice. Everyone got up to share something special. It was so emotional; to hear she stuck to her goals and what she wanted to do to get through the program…and that she made it through. She told me exactly what she wanted Brendan to learn and she told me anytime his behavior is not cooperative to let her know and she did follow up on that.

I met her family: her mom, her sister, and I think some little children who were probably her nieces and nephews. They all had a warmth that you feel when you meet them, and I was like “Wow!” I had to do a letter for her and it was easy to write because she was so supportive the whole time. She would buy special snacks every now and then; she would bring them over. She was really thinking about us and her child when she was here.

The graduation was just awesome. I don’t know everybody’s situation, I just know them through their children. But that bond is just so good. I could tell they really care about me and they’re just very respectful and I could tell I was in the perfect place.

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Ashley’s Story: A Celebration of The Women with Children Program’s Success

October 27, 2016 by Justin Feltman

Ashley fell into postpartum depression when she had her daughter, who is almost now 3 years old. On top of that, she was stuck in a very bad relationship. To cope with it, she began using. “I was in a really bad place and was using a lot, but, all that I was using, it never seemed like enough,” she recalled. Then, Ashley found out she was pregnant with her son.

“When I found out I was pregnant with him, it was either keep using or get clean. I left [the relationship], and went to my mom and aunt for help. My aunt, she used to use. And she went to Lazarus House.” With that, Ashley came to Samaritan Inns, entering the 28-day Adult Treatment Program.

While in treatment, Judy Ashburn, our Director of Treatment Programs, mentioned the new Women with Children Program to her as the next step after her 28 days in treatment.

Last year, Samaritan Inns launched our Women with Children Program at the Clark Inn, the first such program in the District of Columbia. Samaritan Inns’ landmark Women with Children Program addresses one of the most critically underserved populations in the District of Columbia by providing comprehensive treatment and recovery services to women who are battling substance use disorders and homelessness while providing care for their children at the same location.

Since substance use affects the entire family unit; healing and recovery must involve the whole family. From this philosophy, Samaritan Inns used their 30 years of experience to create a program designed to preserve and heal the entire family unit.

The program offers mothers counseling and therapy from licensed clinicians, case management services, family therapy sessions, child development services, and much more over the course of our 6-month program.

The biggest challenge was opening up and trusting that she was in a safe space to share. “You have to talk about your feelings and why you used, how you’re not going to use. I mean, you have to be 100% open. I lied to protect myself. Pretty much because I felt embarrassed,” Ashley shared.

But eventually, the staff, over the course of her stay, earned her trust. “I finally let my guard down. I think after 90 days here, my halfway point, I became a new person.” Once she experienced this change, she opened up to the staff, to the other mothers, and to the treatment programming.

“I made friendships here, I still keep up,” she shared about the staff and fellow residents, “It’s like having siblings.” “You’re never really alone. If you need a break or need some advice, you always have someone there to help you and guide you.” Beyond just the parenting classes focusing on Ashley and her kids, Samaritan Inns offered classes to help heal the relationship between Ashley and her mother. “We never really had a relationship. We always butt heads,” she confessed, “But now, after the therapy, we understand each other a lot more. It gets better day by day.”

When asked what the best advice she received while in the program, she responded, “Be true to yourself first. Because if you can’t be true to yourself, first, there is no hope in what you can do.”

Leaving Samaritan Inns was bittersweet. She wanted to stay but knew it was time for the next chapter. So the staff connected her with a transitional housing facility, where she currently resides.

10 days after leaving Clark Inn, she gave birth to her son. She just returned to school at Prospect College, where she’s taking an 8-month medical assistance program and acquiring a phlebotomy license. From there, she hopes to create a career in medicine and create a bright future for her children.

As we reflect on the 1 year anniversary of the Women with Children Program, stories such as Ashley’s highlight the importance of such a program and the bright future that it provides. Clark Inn stands as a symbol of hope for our city and our mothers, who are wrestling with these issues, for many years to come.

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Creative Care for the Children of The Clark Inn

April 29, 2016 by Justin Feltman

Samaritan Inns has over 30 years of experience helping men and women in the District of Columbia recover from drug and alcohol addictions. The new Women with Children Program at the Clark Inn marks an opportunity for Samaritan Inns to help a new population that has been critically underserved for decades: addicted mothers and their children.

While the recovery of each mother in the Women with Children Program is of vital importance, their children need our help too.

With the overall goal of creating a safe, sober, and holistic family unit, Samaritan Inns opened the Child Development Center at the Clark Inn, licensed by the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE). Focusing on the earliest ages of development (zero to five years old), the young children who accompany their mothers to the Women with Children Program are in great hands.

Kelly Williams, the Director of the Child Development Center, has implemented a Creative Curriculum that gives the children the opportunity to learn things independently.

“The goal is for them to put in their own ideas and think about it. It’s more so about them getting the opportunity to have a lot of hands on activities and to think about what they want to do,” Kelly said.

The children engage independently and with each other through arts and crafts, dress up, writing, puzzle solving, and more – but it’s not just play time. Through these activities, children are able to express their individualism and explore new and exciting ideas as well.

“It’s not just play,” Kelly said. “The children learn different things from play with each creative curriculum activity. From math and science, to social skills, to proper exercise, techniques, and so on.”

Within the Creative Curriculum, Kelly makes sure our program fits each child’s needs. “Because child A is not going to be like child B,” she explains, “They’re not going to have the same needs. So you have to teach each child like an individual.”

As crucial as the development of the children in the Child Development Center is, Kelly benefits from working with them too. “I love working with children,” Kelly said. “I get to see the changes in them. They brighten up your day. If anything else is going on in your life, they just know how to give you that perfect smile that will make everything okay.”

For Kelly, the most rewarding aspect of the work she does at the Child Development Center is fostering growth within each child to prepare them for their future. “You get to mold them,” Kelly shares, “Just to know they are having positive social skills is rewarding to me.”

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