News and Events

Letter from Executive Director – January, 2012

Three years ago we launched our Capital Campaign in the midst of an economic downturn the world still has not fully recovered from. I received dozens of letters and emails expressing enthusiastic support, many with slightly pessimistic postscripts; this is going to be hard, people told me. Trying to raise $1.3 million in this financial climate might even be impossible, they said.

And yes, it has been a challenge. But the difficulties we’ve encountered during our Capital Campaign pale in comparison to those problems many Upper Valley families face each day. Like discovering your child has developmental challenges that will affect the rest of his life. Or having a baby as a teenager and getting no support from your family. Or maintaining steady employment without the benefit of reliable transportation. When we weighed our options – trying to raise money in a recession against turning people away who needed our services because we hadn’t grown enough to accommodate them – it was an easy decision.

And now we’ve reached our goal! Here are some of the improvements our supporters have helped bring to pass:

Phase 1: Purchase and renovation of a 5,000 square foot building adjacent to our initial facility. This building houses counseling, academic tutoring and job training for impoverished young mothers (including a studio for the JewelryOs); a dedicated space for playgroups and parenting workshops; staff offices and meeting rooms. STATUS: Completed – Fall 2009

Phase 2: Renovation of one of two buildings we owned initially. This building now houses our licensed infant/toddler childcare center, where we teach parenting skills to young mothers and care for their children; our Child Advocacy Center, where we interview and support child victims of sexual abuse; our resource library; and main office. STATUS: Completed – Summer 2010

Phase 3: Renovation of our remaining building. This allowed us to expand the kitchen worksite where young mothers learn about cooking, health and nutrition, and create a new classroom for academic education and group meetings. STATUS: Completed – Fall 2011

As a result of these improvements we have expanded many services. We’ve been able to:

• Offer more than 1120 hours of high quality childcare for 16 vulnerable infants and toddlers along with 80 hours of parenting guidance for their parents.
• Teach cooking skills and provide over 5100 healthy meals for 23 families with young children
• Deliver over 1280 hours of individualized academic tutoring for 8 young mothers: 4 have completed high school and 1 has enrolled in college
• Improve our efficiency in bringing therapy and support to over 300 families in their own homes
• Offer interviews and support to nearly 100 victims of childhood sexual abuse and their families

Now begins the task of maintaining our momentum. We plan to analyze our existing programs to ensure they are the best they can be; we also plan to improve those programs which could serve more people with greater success. It’s amazing how reaching one goal leads to setting more goals!

To our friends, families, community members and particularly The Family Place board members, we offer a deeply felt thank you for your continued support during our Capital Campaign and beyond. We look forward to sharing our successes with you in the years to come.

Sincerely,

Elaine Guenet

Executive Director

 1.3 million raised!! THANK YOU for helping us reach our goal!

Click HERE to read our entire Capital Campaign Statement.

Donate below!

Every day hundreds of children & families benefit from our early childhood and family programs. As our capital campaign draws to a close, we send out a hearfelt THANK YOU to those who have helped us reach our goal of 1.3 million.

Won’t you help us reach the next rung? By supporting The Family Place, you are helping families and children throughout the Upper Valley and many surrounding towns.

We are thrilled to have raised 1.3 million thus far! We sincerely appreciate your continued support.

Letter from the Executive Director – June 2011

As Friends of The Family Place, you are aware that we are in the midst of an exciting Capital Campaign and are well on our way to raising $1.3 million for critically needed facility improvements, program expansion and sustainability. We are very pleased to report that since we last wrote, we have raised an additional $250,000 and are now at $1.1 million. Two gifts- one from Jane’s Trust and one from a generous private donor- as well as second gifts from early supporters, and contributions from new donors, have come together to get us to this point. We are very grateful for this support and happy to update you on our progress.

Phase 1: Purchase and renovation of a 5,000 square foot building adjacent to our initial facility. This building houses counseling, academic tutoring and job training for impoverished young mothers (including a studio for the JewelryOs); a dedicated space for playgroups and parenting workshops; staff offices and meeting rooms. STATUS: Completed – Fall 2009

Phase 2: Renovation of one of two buildings we owned initially. This building now houses our licensed infant/toddler childcare center, where we teach parenting skills to young mothers and care for their children; our Child Advocacy Center, where we interview and support child victims of sexual abuse; our resource library; and main office. STATUS: Completed – Summer 2010

As a result of these improvements we have expanded many services, including doubling the program for young mothers living in poverty with infants and toddlers. Thus, we were able to:

• Teach cooking skills and provide over 5100 healthy meals for 23 families with young children
• Offer more than 1120 hours of high quality childcare for 16 vulnerable infants and toddlers along with 80 hours of parenting guidance for their parents.
• Deliver over 1280 hours of individualized academic tutoring for 8 young mothers: 4 have completed high school and 1 has enrolled in college

Phase 3: Renovation of our remaining building. This will allow us to expand the kitchen worksite where young mothers learn about cooking, health and nutrition, and create a new classroom for academic education and group meetings. STATUS: Underway – Summer 2011

Please feel free to contact me if you have questions about our Capital Campaign or the work that we are doing for families with young children in the Upper Connecticut River Valley. On behalf of our staff and Board of Directors, I thank you for your ongoing support. Your help makes it possible for us to reach at-risk families when children are very young and to teach parents ways to nurture the social, emotional and cognitive foundation their children need to thrive in school and later life. The need is urgent. Thank you for helping now.

Sincerely,
Elaine Guenet
Executive Director, The Family Place