Comfort for Kids' Post-9/11 Debut

Hurricane Katrina marks the second time Mercy Corps has deployed Comfort for Kids as part of its disaster response. The program debuted in New York City just weeks after 9/11. By the end of September 2001, Mercy Corps, JPMorgan Chase and Bright Horizons Family Solutions, with critical input from the Dougy Center for Grieving Children & Families, had assembled an innovative program to help parents and childcare providers help children cope with fear, grief and trauma, and at the same time learn respect for others.

The initial Comfort for Kids involved several elements: a "Comfort Kit" of plush toys and activity materials according to age; a three-hour training designed for parents and childcare workers care for the emotional needs of children and teach them respect for others; and resource materials and facilitator’s guide called “What Happened to the World?” filled with information about understanding the reactions of trauma-affected children of various ages.

Up to 500 mental-health providers, childcare workers, special victims bureau detectives and other professionals were trained in the program each month. "We sought out the people who work with kids who are traumatized, and we helped them to understand the impact of trauma on kids of different ages and stages in development," explains Griffin Samples.

Samples was one of three Mercy Corps staff members who made up the agency's initial New York City response team after 9/11. In the course of their on-the-ground assessment, Samples spoke to Mercy Corps board member Linda Mason, the founder and chairperson of Bright Horizons Family Solutions. Bright Horizons is the world's leading provider of employer sponsored child care, early education and work/life solutions. One of its 400-plus clients is financial-services giant JPMorgan Chase, which evacuated 15,000 people from lower Manhattan after 9/11. The three partners developed the Comfort for Kids program in consultation with the Portland-based Dougy Center for Grieving Children & Families.

As part of its response, Mercy Corps also partnered with the Church of Latter-Day Saints to distribute 12,500 Comfort Kits, which consisted of a stuffed animal and briefcase-sized boxes containing writing utensils, a pad of paper, a flashlight, stickers and a Putumayo World Music CD of ten children's songs from around the globe. Similar Comfort Kits are now being assembled for 50,000 children in Louisiana and Texas.