Dear Reader,
June marked a significant milestone for Seedling Foundation as we entered a new phase of growth. After months of planning, we welcomed four new members to our team, making this the largest team in our journey so far, with nine teammates working together towards a shared vision.
This growth comes at an important time. As we work more closely with children and families through our post-release rehabilitation programme, we are seeing how deep the need is and how complex the work can be. It has strengthened our belief that meaningful rehabilitation takes patience, collaboration, and steady engagement.
This Month at Seedling
DeepRoots Center Project
In our February newsletter, we shared how our early experiences with DeepRoots revealed a much larger gap in post-release rehabilitation than we had anticipated. Over the past few months, that understanding has only deepened. We recognised that there are very limited resources available to support children and their families after their release from the Observation Home.
With this growing understanding, we decided to double down on our post-release rehabilitation work by expanding our team and strengthening our approach. We have begun working not only with children and their families, but also with the many stakeholders who together form the rehabilitation ecosystem—Observation Home staff, Probation Officers, the Juvenile Justice Board, lawyers, police personnel, police karkoons (escorts), counsellors, teachers, and partner organisations. At the same time, we are expanding our partnerships with organisations that support education and vocational training, facilitate document creation, provide medical care and support, and offer financial assistance; so that children and families can access support beyond what any one organisation can provide.
As we stepped deeper into this work, we came across stories that challenged our assumptions and pushed us to think beyond our existing ways of working. We realised that rehabilitation is never just about one child; it is about responding to real human needs, many of which extend far beyond the immediate legal case.
We have come across cases where a child was at the Observation Home while his mother was struggling to navigate the system and legalities. At the same time, she was struggling financially, actively looking for a job, living with a history of psychiatric illness, taking care of her other children and experiencing domestic violence. Another single mother was facing similar issues! We are parallelly working with 2 more mothers in very similar circumstances.
Situations like these leave us asking: What does support look like here? How do we respond in a way that is both practical and compassionate?
These are the questions that continue to shape and deepen our work.
Ongoing work with Children’s Aid Society
This month, we facilitated a full-day staff training for all Superintendents and Probation Officers of the Homes of CAS, led by Apurva Bhai and Khushboo didi. The response from the participants was overwhelmingly positive, with several staff members sharing that they found the sessions insightful and practical, not just for their work, but also for their personal lives. Some of them went on to say that this was among the most meaningful training they had attended.
We also visited the Tata STRIVE vocational training centre in Navi Mumbai with 40 members of the CAS staff! The visit helped them visualise practical vocational pathways that could be explored for children after their time in the Homes, while also generating new ideas for strengthening their existing work at the Homes.
One Insight from the Ground
The work of the Children’s Aid Society is beginning to receive wider recognition. Earlier this month, the Hon’ble Minister for Women and Child Development of Maharashtra, Mrs. Aditi Tatkare, highlighted the centenary year of CAS and its rich legacy. We hope this increased visibility brings more attention to the Juvenile Justice system and the work it carries out every day.
A Question We’re Sitting With
How can we scale a project like this to more districts while retaining the depth?
Closing Note + Invitation
Do you know of any organizations that we can build partnerships with? Please can you share the details with us using this Form? (name of the organization, location, area of work)
Why This Newsletter Exists
We believe this work is incomplete without society’s awareness and participation. This space is for sharing our work, approach, and learnings, including insights, questions, and challenges, and for building a thoughtful community around this often unseen area of work.
