Janet S Munt Family Room

See Schedule OHealthy Families from the Start- this is a perinatal program focused on supporting families prenatally and then at least 3 months postpartum. The main objective of this program is to prevent and reduce the affects of postpartum mood and anxiety disorders for birthing mothers and support the family with basic needs, social emotional support, language interpretation, birth prep classes and what to expect at the hospital when giving birth. This program has really covered important social service gaps for families who can't afford alternative supports. Staff home visit each family weekly, addressing each families' needs and connecting them to vital resources. One of the important values we hold in this program is that all families experience child birth with dignity and respect. After the initial 3 months postpartum of support, home visiting will be minimized but meanwhile, the families have been integrated into other aspects of the Family Room, such as Baby Massage, Moms groups/ Dads group and playgroups to make sure each family can build their network of support and learn from other parents.

See Schedule OFood Pantry, parent education and other playgroups- during the pandemic, we started up our food pantry program. This was the greatest need for families in a time of great uncertainty, safety and health concerns. We began in 2020 providing food for 35 families. Over the course of the year, this grew to 150 families a week we were delivering to. We also learned that we needed to provide culturally appropriate foods to families as different dietary needs and foods were needed and continue to do so. We continue to work with local farms, local markets and volunteers to provide a range of different foods. We also provided gift cards for families to get supplies they needed. This effort to support families with food and supplies was a group effort and gave us wonderful opportunities to work with many other organizations. Our model was adopted by Feeding Chittenden, one of our close partners. We continue to provide food for all our program participants. Fresh produce, food staples such as rice, flour, eggs and we will provide prepared meals for families when necessary. We also provide food cards for families who need more flexibility with their food purchases and allows them to get what they need for their family. We provided a variety of support groups and other programs to families such as Strong Families for parenting education and resilience, Dad's Group and African Dad's Groups, Community Orientation, Home Visiting, Computer Literacy, Crawlers Waddlers and Toddlers playgroups, Supper Group and Family Advisory Committee.

See Schedule OPreschool:Our 5 star preschool program serves 12-13 children, ages 3-5 years old. Pre-pandemic, we served more children, but during this time, we reduced the number of children enrolled. Children attend 3 days a week for about 4 hours a day. We provide them with breakfast and lunch and focus on an emergent curriculum. Staff work with parents when they come to transition their children to a school like atmosphere. Many of the families have attended other Family Room programs thus are familiar with the staff and the spaces we have. We also provided supports for families and assisted families with their children's transition to kindergarten and the public school system. Children experienced a range of activities from art expression, literacy, and language (many of our children's first language was not English), singing, field trips to the garden and more. We invite parents in some of the off campus activities so they could be engaged in their children's education and experience.

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