The Darling Home for Kids provides high quality respite, residential and hospice care to children with medical complexities and their families.
It’s a fundamental philosophy of The Darling Home for Kids that all our children feel a sense of belonging and have access to services to help them reach their full potential.
The Darling Home for Kids is a state-of-the-art facility set on a beautiful 77-acre woodlot in Milton, Ontario. Nestled on the Niagara Escarpment, it provides a tranquil and peaceful homelike setting for our children and their families.
The Home has 7 bedrooms that can accommodate 12 children for overnight care. In our large family room, children and families relax by the fireplace, read stories, and snuggle up to watch movies. Our kitchen provides space for meal times and baking, while our multi-purpose room is a space for arts and crafts, activities, and counselling.
Our clinical spaces include our staff station and medication room, and therapeutic programming is offered in our multi-sensory (Snoezelen) room and hydrotherapy room.
Outside, we have a screened in porch, walking trails, a playground, a therapeutic sculpture garden, and a waterfall, allowing children to interact with nature.
By providing wrap-around care and support, we aim to fulfill a gap in the community, helping to ease the strain on hospital resources while also providing a bridge between hospital and home for families in need.
At The Darling Home for Kids, we recognize the immense potential we have to shape the lives of those we serve. We are committed to effectively using every resource at our disposal and leveraging our expertise to create a truly meaningful and lasting impact. Our mission and vision are more than mere words; they are interwoven into the very fabric of our organization, guiding each decision, and driving us to push beyond what we thought possible. Together, we are creating a brighter future for children with medical complexities and leaving a legacy of positive change that will endure for generations to come.
In a peaceful and natural setting, The Darling Home for Kids provides professional, holistic, high quality, and personalized hospice, respite and residential care for children with medical complexities and their families.
A world where no child is too complex to receive the love, care, and support they deserve.
Our journey began with a simple vision, to create a Home away from home for medically complex children and their families. But as we look back on those early days, we realize that we have become so much more. The Darling Home for Kids is filled with immense joy, a place where children are not only cared for but valued, cherished, and given the opportunity to thrive.
We are deeply grateful to the countless individuals who have helped make our vision a reality. From our generous donors to our committed volunteers, building partners, the community, and all of the friends who believed in us and helped us along the way, we thank you for your unwavering support and for being a part of our story.
The vision for The Darling Home for Kids was born out of a recognized need for community-based support for families caring for children with complex medical needs, many of whom were living with progressive, life-limiting illnesses. At the time, there were no facilities in Ontario that combined both respite and hospice palliative care for children in a home-like and fully equipped environment.
Today, as a leader in pediatric complex care, we remain the only organization in Canada to offer a continuum of care for medically complex children, through out-of-home respite, residential and hospice care services. Our goal is to provide a Home away from home for these children and their families, offering them love, care, and support.
The history of our charity includes many individuals who were instrumental in our success. Our founder Maggie Waligora was the original champion of our cause, David Bowker worked tirelessly to bring Maggie’s vision to life, the Cherry Family whose support during the early days enabled us to build our Home, and our government partners who understood our mission and need in our community and provided sustainable funding to achieve our goal.
We are grateful to our organization’s Guardians, Michele Darling, Michael Eagen and their family for their incredible support. Since 2007, the organization has been named in their honour and they have been thoughtful custodians, exemplifying our charity’s mission and vision.
