08/22/2026
Hi everyone! 💗
A little bit of an extra vulnerable post today. 💘
As 2nd Home For All continues to grow, I wanted to share a little more about who we are, what we do, and most importantly, why we do it.
We are incredibly grateful for every family who trusts us with their child. Our goal has never been to simply provide childcare. We want to create a space where children with disabilities and complex needs can genuinely participate, belong, build skills, experience their community, and most importantly, be themselves.
I also think it’s important to be transparent about how 2nd Home operates. We are a private, for-profit business and do not receive government subsidies to operate our services. The income that keeps our doors open, pays our team, and allows us to provide programming comes directly from the services families purchase.
This work has never been about maximizing profit, but we still need to operate sustainably. Specialized care can also get expensive for families, which is why we continue finding creative ways to offset costs. This summer alone, we’ve collected bottles, sold rhubarb, completed biweekly flower deliveries, and organized other fundraisers. These aren’t things we are required to do as a private business. We choose to invest that additional, unpaid time because we recognize the financial realities families face.
A LOT goes into making 2nd Home what it is. There have been countless unpaid and volunteer hours spent building our systems, programming, policies, team, and organization from the ground up. Logan and I have poured an incredible amount of time into creating the foundation for what 2nd Home is today and what we hope it will continue to become.
And when it comes to our families, we show up. ‼️
We do everything we reasonably can to accommodate the individual needs of the children we support. Sometimes that means changing plans, allowing a child to do something completely different from the group, or even bringing in additional support without passing that cost onto the family. We find ways to make it work because having complex needs shouldn’t mean missing out on the same opportunities as everyone else.
We do those things because this work matters deeply to us. But that relationship also has to go both ways.
Our cancellation policies, minimum bookings, fees, and other boundaries exist because this is people’s employment. Our staff commit their time and arrange their schedules around the families they support. We are very understanding when things genuinely come up, but our policies help ensure that respect and flexibility go both ways.
If we want more specialized disability services in our community, the people providing them also need to be able to make a sustainable career out of doing this work.
Yes, our services cost more than traditional childcare. That’s because what we provide isn’t traditional childcare.
We support children with incredibly diverse and complex needs. We are constantly thinking about regulation, communication, behaviour, sensory needs, safety, independence, social development, community participation, relationships, and so much more.
Recently, one of our families asked if their child’s OT and Speech Path could observe him with us because of how regulated and successful he is during our programming. His team wanted to better understand what we were seeing, how he communicates with us, and what contributes to his success in our environment.
THAT is exactly why I wish the word “respite” wasn’t treated as something less valuable when it comes to supporting a child with complex needs.
Our team spends hours and hours with these children, and we learn them to a T.
We learn their communication, what helps them regulate, their sensory needs, triggers, interests, routines, boundaries, and what makes them feel safe. We help them participate in groups, navigate their community, build relationships, develop independence, communicate their needs, experience new things, and successfully spend time away from home.
We aren’t replacing OTs, SLPs, psychologists, teachers, or other professionals involved in a child’s care. We are another valuable piece of that team. We have the unique opportunity to help children practice skills and strategies naturally throughout their everyday lives.
We will continue advocating, finding creative solutions, making accommodations, and finding ways to say “YES” in a world that gives our kids far too many reasons why they can’t.
But for us to continue doing that, there also has to be mutual respect for our time, our team, our policies, and the work we do.
2nd Home won’t be the right fit for every family, and that’s okay. We choose the families we work with just as much as families choose us. There needs to be mutual trust, respect, communication, and alignment in how we believe children deserve to be supported.
At the end of the day, this is why 2nd Home exists. We want our kids to have a place where they are understood, supported, included, and given the same opportunities to experience life as every other child. A place where families know their child is genuinely cared for, exactly as they are.
That is the purpose behind 2nd Home For All, and that is what we will continue building. 🌟💞🦋
- MacKenzie 🫶🏼
