Beyond New Beginnings

In 2023, Beyond New Beginnings served four families who were housed in apartments at our campus, and two families that are stably housed off-campus. We piloted a program to increase the number of families served by offering mentoring, family coaching and participation in the Monday Night classes to families who need such support but are living off-site. The focus of the pilot program is to test the capacity of current staff/volunteers to see how many families we can effectively serve at one time. The pilot program was funded with a grant from the Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation. The goal is to serve eight families at one time with existing staff/volunteers.

Two families successfully moved on to live independently in 2023, with each mom securing employment with pay sufficient to support her family. Moving on is both exciting and stressful for young moms and we continue to learn how to best support them through the process. This is reflected in the 2024 budget with funding allocated specifically to assist in this area.Two new families joined the program in 2023. One mom is completing her high school education and the other mom worked to gain greater skills which will lead to solid employment opportunities. Having overlap between new and existing families creates an environment of stability and congeniality as the more seasoned families help the new families feel comfortable.

An educational program for school aged children was developed by a local education professional specifically for the families at Beyond New Beginnings. At the summer sessions, moms learned how to work with their children on math and reading by using games and tools that incorporated fun into the lessons. The response from the families was so positive that additional programs are under development with roll out expected in the summer of 2024. A participant survey tool was updated and used in 2023 to understand what classes and family activities the moms would like to see offered, as well as what they found most useful about mentoring and coaching, and when they would like to see changed. Getting this feedback was extremely helpful in program planning and moms appreciated being asked. Going forward, we plan to have a recent program alum serve in an advisory capacity on the Program Committee.