Neighbors Link Celebrates Family Center Opening in Mt. Kisco
Parents helping their children succeed from the time they enter school has always been critically important, regardless of who the families are or where they come from.
But immigrant families adjusting to a new life, language and culture often face a more daunting challenge, especially if the moms and dads aren’t fully equipped to handle everything that will be thrown their way.
For the past year, Mount Kisco-based Neighbors Link has run its Family Center at its Columbus Avenue site, a pilot program concentrating on assisting parents, who are their children’s first teachers, to prepare them to enter school and reach their full potential.
“I think this is going to make a big difference in helping the families prepare their children for a college education, and you have to start in the first years,” said Neighbors Link Executive Director Carola Bracco.
Last Tuesday, Neighbors Link celebrated the Family Center by thanking its donors, supporters and volunteers, and also providing visitors a glimpse of the programs it has to offer. Fundraising efforts have totaled roughly $1.3 million through private donations, grants and corporate contributions, Bracco said. The goal is to reach $1.5 million, which will fully fund the center’s first four years, she said.
The center was started about a year ago to bring programs that are relevant to the families’ needs and to help parents navigate the public school system.
Virtually every day at the center there is a program for a different age group, mainly from toddlers through pre-K, as well as one for expectant mothers. In addition to helping parents prepare their kids for school, goals include making sure that all children graduate from high school, readying them for college or a career and eliminating any achievement gap between immigrant children and youngsters born in the United States. Currently, about 300 parents and children utilize the program on a regular basis, and that number is expected to rise, Bracco said.
Family Center Director Ines Gonzalez said the organization strives to have all families obtain access to the most current information about how to help their children. The center also helps parents regardless at what point their children are in their development.
“We created our program so it goes to the family and helps them through (different) stages of development and for the long term,” Gonzalez said.
The Sept. 24 celebration at Neighbors Link featured a smorgasbord of home-cooked food brought in by the families and a couple of musical numbers performed by children and parents.
“Together we shared a vision that parent engagement is critical for academic success, and raising bicultural children is critical to the success of the family,” Bracco said.
What makes the center different is that it’s most common for programs to focus directly on children; the Family Center’s first priority is the parent, said Katie Graves-Abe, development and communications coordinator at Neighbors Link.
“It’s really trying to help parents prepare as their children go through the school-age years, to have confidence in reaching out to the school system, being partners with those schools and being comfortable with that,” Graves-Abe said.
To find room for the Family Center, Neighbors Link took over the space that had been previously occupied by the Head Start program.
Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/
