Mutual Support is dedicated to providing a welcoming and safe place for children and youth, who, for whatever reason, are unable to live with their own families.    It is our desire to provide parenting in partnership with the resident’s family where appropriate without attempting to replace or discourage the resident’s relationship with their family of origin, and in conjunction with the dictates of any court proceedings.

We believe that, as caregivers, it is our responsibility to provide an environment that fosters the best possible outcomes for the children/youth in our care.  As members of a multi-disciplinary team we recognize that we all contribute to each child’s care and treatment. Working together, we  give the residents opportunities to realize their individual potential,  so that they can discover their inner strengths and gifts, while helping them remap some of their more traumatic life experiences. 

Although residents may exhibit challenging behaviour, we firmly believe that kids will do well if they can.  We believe that undesirable behaviour is a visible sign of inner pain and traumatic experiences or the result of the child lagging in skill development.  We do not condone unacceptable behaviour but strive to work towards healing as well as developing the skills necessary for them to perform well.  By providing a structured, stable, predictable environment we create a safe place that makes old defense mechanisms unnecessary. By teaching the child new skills we give them a full toolbox of resources that enables them to face many different life challenges.

We believe that our residents must be given opportunities to develop interpersonal relationships, recognizing their contribution to their family, residence and the community and to take responsibility for their own decisions and actions.  We endeavour to teach residents that they are physical, emotional and spiritual beings and that in order for them to be healthy, functioning members of society they need to be able to honour and care for themselves.

We provide experiences for our residents to learn about and experience their own cultural backgrounds and religious/spiritual belief systems. We believe that it is very important that as caregivers we foster an atmosphere of acceptance and respect for all people groups.  We teach the youth in our care to respect the others’ rights, and to see diversity as opportunity to learn about others.