The Carson Center collaborates with the Ware Adult Education Center to support area teen parents who are high school dropouts. Parents participate in a GED program, develop effective parenting skills, and set long term educational and employment goals through home visits and support groups; childcare is also provided. A caseworker/mentor models and teaches parenting skills, and insures that these young parents access important medical and other resources in this isolated community. An Arts and Humanities curriculum component has been added to the program. A therapeutic recreation and exercise component has also been added. Ten families are targeted for intensive services this year. 

Pregnant and parenting young mothers, primarily from Holyoke, attend educational programs at The Care Center while their children attend daycare at the site. A significant portion of those who pass their GED go on to attend college, but most do not complete their college education. Through this grant award they hired a second transition counselor to work specifically with Care Center students to encourage them to further their education, and with Care Center alumnae to support them once they are enrolled at Holyoke Community College. Once enrolled, the counselor focuses on integrating the students into supportive programs offered by the college. A member of the advising staff at HCC facilitates referrals to support services and tracking of student participants at HCC. 

This comprehensive program included GED instruction, pre-employment and higher education training, and childcare when necessary for 50-60 adults with young children. The organizations collaborating on this program included: Northampton Public Schools - Even Start Family Literacy program, Northampton Housing Authority, and the Franklin /Hampshire Regional Employment Board. This project received funding for one year.  

This Holyoke project provides entry level job skill training to parents of children in poverty age 5 and under from Holyoke. Three training cycles are offered to 15 families at a time for a period of 12 weeks to learn data entry, food service, and customer service/cashier skills. Workshops on life skills and employment readiness are also part of the program. A part-time child coordinator assists parents with a variety of issues and provides special programs for the children while their parents are in training. Follow-up contacts are made for up to a year to assist parents in their transition to the workforce. A part-time job developer helps identify potential employment opportunities for current and past program participants. A parenting component was added to the program. Sixty families are targeted for services this year.

This school-based project that operates during the summer builds adult and family literacy for families of preschool children that have limited English proficiency. Adult learners participate in three levels of ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages). Parents and their preschool children are involved in interactive literacy activities. Early childhood staff provide instruction for preschool children to help prepare them to enter pre-school in the fall. The target for this year is 60 families.

This intensive program serves pregnant and parenting teens, who have dropped out of high school. The teens attend GED preparation classes at the Massachusetts Career Development Institute (MCDI) while their children are being cared for at the YMCA. The teens are also engaged in life skills courses and activities at the YMCA. A specially trained program coordinator greets the teens as they drop off their children in the morning, maintains contact with their MCDI advisor, visits their homes to assist with modeling parenting behavior, and provides one to one support and guidance. A health and wellness component, with fitness goals, and a book club are also part of the program. Eighteen families are targeted for services this year.

This initiative takes a multi-disciplinary approach to working with staff, children and families primaritly form Holyoke, Chicopee and Springfield, through both prevention and intervention models. Services include staff training, mentoring and coaching of teachers and parents, resource and referral information, and parent education. By building positive relationships among children, their caregivers and teachers, the program helps to build children's self-esteem and confidence and therefore improve the children's behavior and increase their overall success in school. A new component for this year involves special groups to focus on socialization for some children with complicated issues impacting their behavior. While the entire agency benefits, 200 staff, 30 parents and 18 children will receive targeted services this year.

The 175 low-income preschool age children who attend the agency's five childcare centers and their parents benefited from this project in two ways. The preschool curriculum for math and science was substantially upgraded through the purchase of new educational tools, equipment, and by providing specialized training for teaching staff in these areas. Additionally, life skills programs were offered for the parents to assist with goals of self-sufficiency, parenting skills, and to involve them in their child's education. This project was only funded for one year.

This collaboration with Montague Catholic Social Ministries provides intensive outreach through home visiting to low-income families where parents lack a high school diploma or the skills expected of a high school graduate. During home visits, staff and parents assess and improve family literacy skills to aid the parents and the children. Home visitors screen for developmental progress in the children and make appropriate referrals. They assist parents in identifying resources to help them on their road to self-sufficiency and encourage them to enroll in agency support programs. The Family Learning Center located in Greenfield provides opportunities for parents to further their own education while their children are cared for on site. Forty five families are targeted for services this year.

This project serves families with children living at or below the poverty level to achieve self-sufficiency; acquire better parenting skills, and become more involved in their child's education. A social worker supervises Springfield College School of Social Work interns offering intensive case management including: child and family assessments, home visiting to teach and model parenting skills. In addition there are parent education classes, support groups. A partent advisory council ghas also been created. This year up to 10 families will be served through home visiting and 110 will be served in total through their group sessions.

The program offers educational support, skills training and mentoring to lo-income parents with cognitive or learning disabilities raising children ages five and under in Franklin County. Program components include: 1) a parennt support and education group with training inn financial literacy, basic child health and wellness, understanding of child development stages, promotion of child language development, and parent-chiold communication; 2) home visits from parent educators to help parents transfer new skills and information to the home/family environment; 3) mentoring support from community volunteers who assist families on an individual basis and serve as learning buddies in group education sessions. Fifty families are targeted for services this year.