Businesses
Businesses have a wonderful capacity to give and an amazing network of contacts.
The efforts you put into helping families are amplified when you share the opportunity to contribute with your employees and customers.
What can you do?
Promote a culture where it is okay for employees to reach out and ask for help.
Acknowledge that personal difficulties - and parenting difficulties - can often infringe on work life. An employee who’s underperforming or seems withdrawn may have a problem at home - and while you shouldn’t pry, make it make it clear that you’re willing to listen and don’t rush to judgment.
Know how to respond.
Provide training to employees so that they know how to handle emerging situations with children and families, including tantrums, overwhelmed parents, and potential abduction situations.
What you do every day can be helpful to families when given at a discount or for free.
Whether you're a doctor who does free sports physicals for kids or a shop that gives its day-old bread or farm who gives food to a local food pantry, you can make a difference.
Communicate understanding.
A simple smile or gesture recognizes that parenting in public is difficult and, sometimes, "kids will be kids.”
Share local and other
parenting resources with your employees.
First5 Del Norte and Parenting Now! both offer parenting information that can be useful to working families.
Offer leave for new parents
And for foster and adoptive parents and grandparents and help them reintegrate into the workplace when they return.
Sponsor a local sports team or donate art supplies to a preschool.
Del Norte County businesses can sponsor local sports teams to encourage healthy activities, community building, and supportive relationships.
Explore options.
The CDC offers a variety of actions, both large and small, that businesses can take to support families and prevent child abuse.