In a neighborhood based setting, Family Connections works to offer educational and family support programs that affirm families' strengths while enhancing their capacity to raise their children and develop healthy and safe communities. The expertise we've honed over the years has made Family Connections a heartwarming success that include the following:
1. Healthy and effective attachment and separation development for children and their caregivers, resulting in a decrease in stress among caregivers and a higher level of security felt by children.
2. The ability of parents to understand and take the necessary steps to enroll their children in Pre-K.
3. Positive and age-appropriate social interactions between children.
4. A seamless continuum of educational services, resources, and support for children ages newborn to ten, and their caregivers.
5. An increase in language capacity among children and their caregivers, including first languages spoken in the home and English as a second language.
6. The early identification of children with special needs (developmental, emotional, and academic) and the provision of resources and support to address these needs within the entire family.
7. The ability to identify, understand, and nurture fine and gross motors skills in a child’s development and successful preparation for school readiness.
8. Increased nutritional and physical health awareness for all family members.
9. Child abuse prevention through educational workshops and ongoing hands-on modeling with our childcare specialists and family therapist.
10. Healthy communication between family members based on best practices.
Our direct services include: Early Childhood Development programs (Child/Parent Drop-In, Next Steps), Pre-Kindergarten classes (Pre-School For All), Educational and Recreational Support for Elementary School Children (Homework Club, Summer Academic Enrichment, Tuesday Night Tutorial, and Chinese Saturday School), Parent/Caregiver Education Programs (Nurturing Parents, Mama Latinas and Grandparent Support Groups, Meet and Eats, and ESL classes), Marriage/Family/Individual Counseling and Therapy, Case Management, and providing Resource and Referral assistance to thousands of people annually.
In addition, Family Connections works within the community to cultivate leadership by providing effective models for organizing and supporting community efforts to catalyze change. Outside of the neighborhood, Family Connections serves as an advocate to primarily help our immigrant residents bring attention to their needs and ensure that these needs are recognized and addressed by City leaders.
A Typical Day In The Life of Family Connections: For those who haven’t experienced Family Connections, the best description is that it makes you smile and provides a sense of what a healthy, inspiring learning environment should be, and is at Family Connections. Throughout the day 300 pairs of unduplicated feet walk (or are lovingly carried) through our doors. Starting at 8:00am, 30 parents/caregivers arrive to attend ESL classes in our large classroom until 9:30am. At 9:00am Pre-K and Nurturing Parents begin with 18 children and their caregivers entering our bright and colorful Pre-K classroom and attending class until noon. Led by a licensed and experienced Chinese bilingual head teacher and assisted by a Spanish bilingual teacher and one aide, Pre K provides an emergent curriculum that uses children's curiosities and interests to create learning experiences that motivate their developmental growth. Our curriculum is modeled on State and NAYEC standards and developmentally appropriate practices of school readiness to ensure children are prepared for elementary school challenges.
By 9:30am 32 children (infants – 3 years of age) and their parents/caregivers have arrived to participate in the Child/Parent Drop In program for 2 and a half hours. Supervised by our licensed Family Therapist, working with 11 bilingual/bicultural childcare staff, the children and their parents/caregivers join in a variety of child development activities designed to build social, emotional, and cognitive skills. Parents and caregivers also receive training, support, mentoring and counseling as needed. During this time, our specialized program Next Steps is also running. 15 high need/emerging children and their parents/caregivers are participating in the program’s developmental education and activites to help ensure that they’re well prepared and are placed in an appropriate Pre-K.
At 12:30 our afternoon session of Pre-K and Nurturing Parents begins. At 2:30 Family Connections’ teachers pick up children ages 5-12 from E.R. Taylor Elementary School. Following 45 minutes of healthy snacks and supervised playground time, the children are walked to Family Connections where they’re divided into groups according to grade level. Homework Club staff members coordinate with the children's classroom teachers to make certain each child has the proper homework assignments and is making appropriate progress. Additionally, Homework Club staff maintains a daily log to monitor each child's progress in completing their assignments and provides academic support to help children complete their assignments accurately. As a primary feature of the program, children spend at least 45 minutes each afternoon participating in our Good Reading Opens Worlds (GROW) literacy program, which includes activities such as silent reading, playing literacy games on the computer, or listening to a Read Aloud story. On Wednesdays, Tree Frog Treks visits each classroom with a wide array of reptiles and amphibians to nurture children’s critical thinking skills while offering fun, hands-on science/literacy programming. When the homework and literacy activities are finished, Homework Club provides recreational activities and opportunities such as arts and crafts and board games. The children are picked up by their parents/caregivers at 5:30.
The day finishes up at 9:00pm, following our evening ESL class that begins at 7:00pm. On Tuesdays, visitors would also observe our Grandparent Support Group, 10-12 grandparents meeting to share ideas about issues such as parenting a second time and child safety; on Wednesdays they’d observe our Mama Latinas program, a Spanish-speaking support group for moms and caregivers. Counseling/therapy sessions and resource/referrals are available throughout the day with Family Connections staff members providing our programs and services seamlessly with great care and support.
