CORRECTION: The Children’s Cottage Society’s new centre and Hope’s Cradle will not become operational until later in the new year.
In 1987, Teanna Elliot was unsafely surrendered in a Calgary parking lot as an infant. Wrapped in a garbage bag with her head sticking out, she was discovered by two young boys walking home from school.
“It was hard knowing that somebody just gave me up,” said Elliot.
Since Elliot’s surrender in the ‘80s, there have been plenty more cases of unsafe surrender in the city.
Dave Sweet, a former homicide detective for the Calgary Police Service, said he can easily recall – from his 15 years in the field – seven to eight cases where infants were found deceased due to being left in unsafe environments.
Recently retired in October, Sweet views the cases he has worked on as a learning opportunity.
“Over the years, I’ve been able to focus on, not the issue at hand, but what we can do or what we can learn from it,” he said.
In 2017, Sweet worked a case where an infant was found deceased in a recycling bin on Christmas Eve. That specific case of “Baby Eve”, the name coined for the infant, sparked a wave of discussion surrounding the need for an anonymous safe surrender program in Calgary.
Sweet, a board chair for the Calgary organization Gems for Gems, encouraged the CEO and founder, Jordan Guildford to start her own cradle program.
With Gems for Gems already committed to helping women end the cycle of domestic abuse, the creation of Hope’s Cradle fit with their mission. Their first cradle was built in 2021 and is located in Strathmore at a fire station. Since then, two more cradles have been established in Ontario and Manitoba.
However, Guildford is pleased to finally establish Calgary’s first cradle which will be at the Children’s Cottage Society’s new family centre, located in Montgomery.
How Hope’s Cradle works
The cradle is a heated cupboard located on the outside of the building. Mothers who wish to anonymously surrender their baby can open the door and leave their infant.
In the bassinet is an envelope for the mother to take. Inside is information for postnatal physical and mental care as well as a guided letter for the mother to fill out to leave her final words to the child. Additionally, the mother can fill out the medical history of herself and the father.
The letter, with pre-paid postage addressed to the site of surrender, can then be mailed any time following the surrender.
About two minutes after opening the door, an audible alarm will sound for the staff on site to come collect the baby. The alarm also signals to the mother that it is her last chance to leave anonymously.
Once she closes the door, the cradle’s outside door locks. Staff will then come collect the baby from inside the building and take the infant to the hospital where Children and Family Services will take over.
Although Covenant Health operates the Angel Cradle Program for anonymous surrender, it only serves Edmonton with two sites located at local hospitals.
“We did look into partnering with the one in Edmonton,” said Guildford. “But they didn’t want to or they had no intention of expanding.”
Although limited statistics exist on the Angel Cradle Program, the program did report that after its installation in 2013, it received its first drop-off in 2017.
“Connection is the only thing that matters. We’re trying to connect mothers to a facility that’s going to help them. We’re trying to connect babies to a better future.”
Tanya Gillespie
Guildford emphasizes that the amount of use is not important. The cradle about giving mothers in desperate situations the option to anonymously surrender their child safely.
She adds that the model of anonymous surrender has proved successful in the United States. The Safe Haven Baby Boxes have received 37 babies across the states since 2015. Additionally, nearly 5,000 infants since 1999 have been relinquished under Safe Haven laws in the U.S.
Experience of being surrendered
Teanna Elliot said that her attitude towards her surrender may have shifted if she had been surrendered through an initiative like Hope’s Cradle.
“It was really hard, I had a lot of negative feelings towards my birth mother because of the way she left me,” said Elliot. “I just thought it was such a negative way, whereas if we had something like Hope’s Cradle, it maybe could have shifted my energy a little bit.”
In 2020, Elliot was able to reconnect with her birth mother and father through Ancestry and the help of a genealogist.
Elliot’s birth father had no idea she even existed, and her birth mother – who Elliot shares a complicated relationship with – was able to provide a glimpse into the night she left Elliot.
At 19-years-old, Elliot’s birth mother was scared. With limited options and a need to give up her baby, she left Elliot in a busy parking lot.
“She did what she could at the time with the resources she had,” said Elliot.
Surrender from an unsafe home
Tanya Gillespie shares in Elliot’s experience of being surrendered, however her transition from birth mother to foster care was done so safely.
Gillespie’s birth mother, Caroline, had been trafficked at an early age in Vancouver. Eventually becoming an escort and drug addict, she gave birth to Gillespie in 1976.
“She went right back onto the street and I went into my grandparents’ care,” she said.
Sadly, addiction was present in her grandparent’s home as well. At 11 months, Gillespie went into foster care until she was adopted at 19 months.
“It’s not always easy to surrender a child, I would say it’s never easy,” said Gillespie. “But often women are not in safe situations. Often, they’re trafficked. Often, they just don’t have an option.”
When women are met with these circumstances, they look for a last resort, like Hope’s Cradle.
“I hope that people realize that connection is the only thing that matters,” said Gillespie. “We’re trying to connect mothers to a facility that’s going to help them. We’re trying to connect babies to a better future. And with some hope, there might be some help for the both of them.”
The cost of Hope’s Cradle
Jordan Guildford hopes to establish a Hope’s Cradle in every Canadian city.
“This lifesaving option is very doable and you can bring it to your community wherever you are,” she said.
The total cost for the construction and installation of a cradle is $22,000 in Calgary and $25,000 outside of Calgary, as the team needs to travel to establish it. However, once built, there are zero expenses moving forward, so long as there is staff in the building to monitor and care for the cradle.
“The longest time it has taken to raise the funds was two and a half weeks,” she said.
The largest challenge of establishing a Hope’s Cradle is finding a facility that can host and monitor it 24/7.
“I don’t think people realize how easy it is or what it takes to be able to get it done,” she said. “Certainly it wasn’t easy in the two years leading up to launching, but now that we’ve been able to create a process, it is very easy for anyone else who wants to have one.”
Calgary’s first cradle
Already installed at the Children’s Cottage Society’s new family centre, the cradle will become operational when the centre opens sometime in the new year.
Danielle Ladouceur, CEO of the Children’s Cottage Society, said Hope’s Cradle aligns perfectly with their organization’s mission.
“We’re all about helping families who are facing challenges,” she said. “We’re very excited about our new family centre… it’s going to bring most of our services under one roof.”
Since the centre has a 24/7 crisis nursery on site, it made perfect sense for the Cottage Society to host the Hope’s Cradle since there is a staff to monitor it.
Exactly six years since the death of Baby Eve, Dave Sweet said she has left an inspiring legacy.
“Even though [Baby Eve’s] life was very, very short, look at what a difference she’s making,” he said. “It’s the legacy of her life and it’s beautiful.”