(BPT) - Bright Horizons, a leading education and care company, was built on the belief that doing well is firmly intertwined with doing good. For 25 years, the Bright Horizons Foundation for Children has formalized that mission, with employees volunteering and making a difference in communities across the country where they live and work.
Bright Spaces, the signature program of the Foundation, provide fun, educational, safe environments within non-profit organizations for children to play while their families are accessing the services they need. Created by Bright Horizons Foundation volunteers, Bright Spaces are located around the country in homeless and domestic violence shelters, police stations, sober living facilities, early intervention centers, and other community and non-profit agencies. Bright Spaces unite Bright Horizons employees, clients, vendors, families and friends in the important work of supporting children and families facing adversity, trauma and crisis - serving 130,000 children and their families annually.
"When Roger Brown and Linda Mason founded Bright Horizons, they were intent on extending the proposition that while we are serving the children of working families, we must also support those in need in the communities where we live and work. We live by that principle and the mission they set forth to this very day at Bright Horizons and through the Bright Horizons Foundation for Children," shared Bright Horizons Foundation President Yvonne Lynch.
She added, "The goal of creating a Bright Space is to give children the opportunities they deserve to develop resilience and form stronger bonds with their families and other caring adults. We strive to promote healing, offer nurturing and stimulating activities and provide a stable, enriching environment for each child."
Since 1999, the Bright Horizons Foundation for Children has opened 450 Bright Spaces across the United States. One Bright Space, located at the Capital Caring Health Adler Center for Caring in Aldie, Virginia, provides a comfortable and cozy spot for children and families to play, relax and be together while visiting loved ones at the hospice center.
Families who have access to a Bright Space have shared the difference it has made for them. One non-profit partner reported a baby had taken her first steps at their Bright Space. She and her mother were separated during foster care, and without having supervised visitation in a safe, warm, home-like space, the mom would have missed her daughter's first steps. Another partner shared, "As the Bright Space is located in our overnight emergency shelter where many families are in crisis, it provides a safe and comforting environment where kids can just be kids even if only for a little while."
These Bright Spaces offer a safe place for families to connect, whether it's an emergency shelter for families who are in crisis or a place for young children to access needed resources like occupational therapy.
In Colorado, Bright Horizons employees created a Bright Space inside the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless headquarters in Denver to be a welcoming family room for Colorado residents seeking assistance with housing and other crucial services.
Earlier this year, Newton, Massachusetts-based employees came together to create two Bright Spaces at the Eliot Early Intervention Center in Malden in honor of Bright Horizons' founders Roger Brown and Linda Mason. The spaces are for children 18-36 months of age and feature a gross-motor space for muscle development and a classroom play space for more structured activities like arts and crafts and circle time, much like a typical toddler room at a Bright Horizons child care center.
In 2004 a group of Bright Horizons employees in the Design, Construction and Facilities Department, along with a group of vendors, created the annual Bright Horizons Golf Tournament to benefit the Foundation. As the Foundation's single biggest fundraiser, the tournament has raised an incredible total of $1,875,000 to date and sponsored 33 Bright Space makeovers over the last 20 years!
"For 25 years, Bright Horizons employees have rallied together to support organizations close to their hearts in their local communities," said Lynch. "Their passion and dedication is a shining example of bringing the Bright Horizons mission to life."
For more information on the Bright Horizons Foundation for Children, visit: brighthorizonsfoundation.org.