Message From Our Executive Director, Betty Kinsman (December 2011)
The Springfield Area Parent Child Center (SAPCC) celebrates its 20th anniversary in the fall of 2012 and I’d like to share a brief overview of our journey. It’s been a fruitful one.
In July 1991, following a survey of area families which revealed that families were looking for ‘parenting support, access to early childhood education and “a place to gather”’, the PCC began in the basement of Park Street School with two part-time staff, very little money, and strong support from community members, human services staff, school administrators, legislators and parents. In the space shared with Essential Early Ed (EEE) staff, we offered two parenting classes and a “Community Resource Manual” listing available services and programs in the area –a short list compared to the offerings of other Parent Child Centers in other parts of the state.
In 1992, we expanded services, outgrew the basement space and purchased a building on Myrtle Street in Springfield and became an official Parent Child Center. By 1996, only four short years after expanding, we had grown out of the Myrtle Street building and began searching for a new location to accommodate the increased staff and program offerings. The former "Springfield Decorating Center" in North Springfield became our new home in 1997 and a child care center, Learning Partners Child Center, was opened in the Howard Dean Education Center in 2002. This program merged with the PlayWorks Child Center in 2011. Our successful thrift store and job training site, Myrtle's Closet - A Thrift Store, remained on Myrtle Street until 2005 when renovations to the North Springfield building were complete. The renovations also allowed for another expansion of our child care services to include additional infant and toddler care at our PlayWorks Child Center, a much-needed service in the area.
Consolidating all of our administrative, educational and job-training programs to one location has benefited the popular Learning Together program. Nineteen students currently attend this alternative school program 4 days a week learning job readiness skills, parenting, child development, and working on their educational plan. Four students graduated from Springfield High School in June, three of these now are working full time and one is continuing her education at Community College of Vt. The Learning Together program is offered year round. Other parents attend for "Community Services" which is a job training program for people looking for work and not able to find a job.
Today, we offer a variety of services for parents and young children. We've grown to a staff of 32 – and more when you add part time substitutes and volunteers, including a volunteer board of directors. We’ve outgrown two buildings and our board of directors has taken on the huge challenge of planning a new building to accommodate and expand the services that we offer to families and child care providers in the southern Windsor and northern Windham counties. Construction began on June 7, 2010 and we moved into the building in June 2011. For more information, click here.
We have developed a special website to provide information about our building project. Please check it out and hear from our friends at http://www.fundraising.org/icase/sapcc/newbuilding.htm
Over the next year we will continue to host special fundraising events to raise the money needed for expanded programs and a new building to make continued expansion possible. This effort has resulted in more space for programs and now we continue to need to fund raise money to increase the programming. Stay tuned.
Many thanks to the Springfield School District, especially Steve Hier and Joyce DuBack for all they did for us during our early years. We deeply appreciate all the efforts of the initial dedicated group including Ruth Kibby, Lynn Boyle, Joyce DuBack, Leslie Harrison, Jan Crow, Corey Mitchell, Dick McCormack, Tom Hunter, Alice Emmons, Jeanice Garfield, Lori Gurney, past and present board members, and many other volunteers who work so hard to bring these vital services to families in our region and who made the Springfield Area PCC possible.
We have an active board of directors who are busy in fundraising and building design. These busy volunteers spent many hours each month on SAPCC business and are a key to our success. We invite you to contact us for a tour and to see how you can get involved.
