Access to necessities like housing, food, and mental and physical health care as well as enrichment opportunities for children and their caregivers are critical to all families, especially those with children under five. Prolonged exposure to adversity at a very young age can cause long-term physical changes to the structure of children’s brains. Research shows that when families of young children are connected with the services they need, the positive impacts are significant and long lasting.
But connections between families and local resources can be challenging to make, particularly for children who are not yet enrolled in public school. How can communities reach families of children under five who attend preschool outside the public school system?
The city of Salem, Massachusetts is on a quest to answer this question. Salem created a partnership between its public school district and five community-based preschools aimed at improving the preschool experience and better supporting the needs of young families. With the support of a Commonwealth Preschool Partnership Initiative (CPPI) grant, Salem was able to extend their work with City Connects—which already supports Salem’s public Pre-K through 8 schools—to the partnership’s five community-based preschools.
Pre-K City Connects Coordinators Linda Guevara and Christy Uhrowczik began working with Angela’s Preschool & Daycare, Ashley’s Preschool & Daycare, Pathways for Children, Salem Community Child Care, and the Salem YMCA in October and have started building relationships with parents, school staff, and community partners. They worked with teachers to identify the strengths and needs of each child and surveyed caregivers to understand how to support each family.
Guevara and Uhrowczik have connected families with community resources like Salem’s Family Resource Center—which offers food and housing support as well as parent education and support groups—and Cartwheel Care for mental health support. They also partnered with The Salem Pantry to bring a mobile food truck to school.
“It’s a lovely food truck with fresh produce and chicken. It was set up right on their school grounds and we were onsite to help parents register. They got to leave with a nice big bag of food and now that the families are signed up, they can go to The Market- The Salem Pantry and shop for free once per week,” said Uhrowczik.
The Coordinators have spent many hours in the classroom this year, directly supporting students and teachers with social-emotional learning opportunities and classroom management. Christy, a trained school counselor, held small group sessions and led her preschool classes through the Second Step program—which uses songs and puppets to teach skills like listening, taking turns, and identifying and managing emotions.
Christy and Linda were also able to support families in enrolling in Kindergarten, securing transportation, filling out health forms, providing gift cards at the holidays, and sharing gift cards for groceries.
“The connections we’ve been able to make with some parents—connecting them with a resource or just touching base with them—has been a win. We haven’t been able to touch base with all the parents, but some have been receptive to support,” said Guevara.
As they wrap up the school year, Linda and Christy say they see room for growth in the second year. To further build relationships with families next year, they plan to be at drop off a few days a week and attend the schools’ open houses. They also feel that after a year of experience working with school staff, the process will go more smoothly next year.
The future is full of opportunities for both the program and its graduates. The Coordinators say one of the best things about City Connects expanding into community-based preschool is that it sets students up for success in kindergarten.
“We were able to talk with City Connects Coordinators and school adjustment counselors in the elementary schools and share what we saw through the year like the improvements students made and areas they may need to continue working on. It gives the schools insight into who is coming so they can plan for the fall,” said Guevara.
“The kids we flagged for additional support in the fall will go into kindergarten better prepared than they would have been had we not done that and done some interventions,” said Uhrowczik.
It’s one more way that City Connects is helping Salem to support children and families on a path to success.
