CLEVELAND, OH – A new early childhood development program launching in four parts of Cuyahoga County in 2022 aims to help rebuild the proverbial village needed to raise a child – and properly support their parents.
The Office of Early Childhood is piloting a “Family Space” program, a sort of neighborhood hub where parents can bring their children to socialize with other families and receive free services based on their needs and interests.
It will be a place-based expansion of some of the in-home prenatal, perinatal, preschool, or kindergarten services that the office already provides, but in a group setting where young mothers and fathers can also connect with other parents.
These types of social networks and play groups are already widely used by suburban parents to positive effect, Rebekkah Dorman, director of Invest in Children, said. But they’re less common among lower-income families, who may be working multiple jobs, don’t have the home space to accommodate play dates, or have fewer opportunities to make connections.
“We really want everyone in our community to have the same positive kinds of experiences when they’re raising babies and toddlers,” Dorman said.
The program is being piloted in library branches in Maple Heights, Garfield Heights, Woodland Hills and West Park, and parents from each of those locations will get to help set the hours of operation and decide what programs and services will be offered.
Starting in January, Invest in Children will be recruiting parents of young children to form parent advisory committees at each of the locations. The committees will outline what families in their neighborhoods most need, which could include things like literacy services, healthcare or job training, according to Family Engagement Manager Alyssa Swiatek.
“Parent voice and choice is truly the cornerstone of the Family Space model,” Swiatek said.
Family Space is expected to officially open by March, if it’s deemed safe for families with young children to gather, given COVID-19 trends at the time, she said. To learn more about the program or to volunteer for the committee, email her at [email protected].
If the program is successful, organizers hope to expand it to libraries throughout the county. Dorman hopes that will encourage more families to use the resources available to help improve health and wellness outcomes for area youth. She said she recognized that, to start, parents may not feel comfortable having someone come to their home through one of the office’s traditional programs, so she wanted to make sure they can access the same help at Family Space.
“The hope would be, once you interact with us through Family Space and you start to feel more trust, perhaps then you do say, ‘I will accept a home visit, I can see that is beneficial,’” Dorman said.
The county is funding $460,000 of the project, with another $100,000 coming from partner agency United Way of Greater Cleveland.
