Family, Friends and Neighbors Who Care for Young Children End of Year Celebration!

Stratford Parents’ Place (SPP) recently celebrated another successful year of its Family, Friends and Neighbors program. Providers who attended this year’s celebration were treated to dessert and a raffle for toys and baby equipment, many of which were donated to Parents’ Place through the Junior Women’s League of Stratford and families who support the center’s mission. There were many smiling faces that night and many reasons to be proud of their efforts and participation in the program.

The Family, Friends and Neighbors program reaches out to Stratford home based child care providers and offers support and education to these providers to support quality childcare programming in the area. Funding is provided by the United Way of Coastal Fairfield County. The program offers a lending library of learning bags, ongoing provider outreach and support by a certified parent educator, a home visiting program focusing on child development information, and monthly provider/child activity sessions held at Parents’ Place.

The providers are also able to participate in Stratford Parents’ Place Early Childhood Institute workshops and training. These trainings support quality child care and education of preschoolers and include topics specific to Connecticut’s Early Learning and Development Standards, (CT ELDS). By introducing these standards to childcare providers, it helps them to think about activities they can incorporate into their daily routines to promote development and learning. Lillian, a Stratford home-based childcare provider states that with the help of Stratford Parents’ Place, and learning more about the CT ELDS, she has been able to “make many improvements in and has learned so much”.

Stratford Parents’ Place, a family resource center, located at Stratford Academy/Johnson House, 719 Birdseye Street is a program of the Stratford Public Schools. All programs and services are for Stratford residents. For more information about this exciting program, please call Migda Carrero, Stratford Parents’ Place at 203-381-6992 or carrerom@stratfordk12.org.