The Gilmer County Kids Kottage only recently reopened after being closed for much of last year. Already, an increased need has been seen for the place for supervised visitations between children and family members separated by court proceedings or other factors.
“As the economy gets less and less dependable, it puts a lot of pressure on family life. A lot of times, that filters down to the children and, unfortunately in the world we live in today, children just don’t seem to have a whole lot of advocates outside of the home,” said Dr. Craig Ajmo, Kids Kottage Committee chairman. “We are seeing the need for our services slowly increase and, unless things turn around dramatically pretty soon, we anticipate we’ll be seeing more of that in the next several months.”
The nonprofit Kids Kottage has served as a meeting place and a counseling resource for separated families since 2011.
“It’s basically a safe haven where kids can meet with their parent(s) while being faced with circumstances where the parent or parents are going through something like Drug Court, a divorce situation or court-ordered supervised visitation. A lot of places where kids (go to have visitations) are very institutional. Kids Kottage, on the other hand, is meant to be a very homey and kid-oriented place,” Ajmo told the Times-Courier in a 2018 article.
The facility reopened last November after a monthslong shutdown. “With COVID, we had to cut back on services, but we are now functioning full tilt,” Ajmo confirmed. “A lot of government services also shut down, and the reason we didn’t open up till November was we waited till the school system opened back up. We used that as a gauge to see what was happening with kids who were all together in the classroom. Then, we felt a lot more comfortable opening our doors with some very strict parameters.”
The Kids Kottage was built using the layout of a typical home. That design allows meetings to occur in separate rooms without much cross-contact, noted Ajmo.
“We’re very fortunate that the building is conducive to circulation patterns that allow us to have a good flow through there,” he said.
“We’ve also put in some new safety parameters including temperature checks and cleanup protocols to make sure the kids, parents and our staff are safe. We’ve developed a pretty good information base as to what we can and can’t do safely and not take any risks, versus what we didn’t know before.”
Donation appreciated
A recent monetary donation form the Pickens County Sportsman’s Club will help cover some operational expenses at the reopened facility.
The sportsman’s club is a private shooting group that promotes responsible firearm handling, training, safety and education. Although its clubhouse is in Pickens County near where Yukon Road becomes Jones Mountain Road, the club has several members who live in Gilmer County.
“(We’ve made) an annual donation to the Kids Kottage for several years,” said sportsman’s club president Tom Porter, a past Kids Kottage Committee chairman who was part of a team that led the near four-year fundraising and building campaign to build the facility.
“Because our building is paid for and was built with donated money, every penny that is donated to us goes strictly toward the caretaking of the kids,” noted Ajmo.
“We are happy to be back in service, and we plan on being around for a long time,” he added.
This sportsman’s club also gave $1,000 donations to Gilmer County nonprofit Shelter Dogs for Veterans and the Pickens Sheriff’s Office to help fund its Shop With the Sheriff Christmas program.