Hope’s Cradle expands from Strathmore to Steinbach

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Hope’s Cradle initiative, which launched the first station of its kind in Strathmore last year, is expanding to a second municipality in Canada.

Gems for Gems, the organization responsible for facilitating Hope’s Cradle, is partnering with the Steinbach Fire Department to establish the new cradle in their community. 

“We are definitely thrilled with the expansion, and that is definitely our goal – to be able to have Hope’s Cradles accessible to everyone in need,” said Jordan Guildford, founder and CEO of Gems for Gems. “We want to be able to have Hope’s Cradles in every community we possibly can, so we are certainly very grateful for the Steinbach Fire Department.”

Hope’s Cradle is an initiative launched in order to give mothers a safe and anonymous way to abandon a child, no questions asked. 

When a child is left inside a cradle, which is effectively a warm and secure box at a fire station, an alarm is triggered for a firefighter to retrieve the child and ensure their safety. 

The program aims to address the problem of mothers abandoning children in places such as dumpsters, where they would likely perish, and instead giving them a way out when there are no other options to her.

“Steinbach is incredibly well-situated as far as being able to be visited and is an accessible place for people in need,” said Guildford. “With the media attention that we got from our first location in Strathmore, they heard about us and reached out wanting to be able to bring on to their community, and they got the necessary funds together quickly.”

Guildford added Gems for Gems has been steadily receiving correspondence from municipalities across Canada, and she is optimistic about the expansion of the Hope’s Cradle program in future years. 

For a municipality’s fire department that is interested in hosting a Hope’s Cradle, the organization would need to raise $20,000 to finance the construction and establishment of the program. 

“I believe that the more fire stations that step up, the more that will join them. It is taking more bravery than I thought it would … I though because it was just so smooth and seamless in Strathmore, that it would continue that way,” said Guildford. “Strathmore had done a lot of work with lawyers prior to even connecting with us to ensure they would be safe liability-wise, should anything go wrong.”

The primary concern Guildford specified was in regards to the possibility of local firefighters being deployed to a location with no one available to retrieve an infant dropped off at the same time as a fire.

For mothers who leave their child with the Hope’s Cradle, there is a 30-day period where they would be able to reclaim the child, should they have utilized the service to escape from a situation such as domestic abuse. 

If a child is not reclaimed within the 30-day grace period, they are introduced into the adoption system.