Janet Munt Family Room

See Schedule OFamily Play is our most attended program. It is a drop in playgroup that serves hundreds of participants a year, children ages birth to five, parents and their caregivers. During the fall and winter months, we are inside at our 20 Allen St. site. We utilize several rooms and provide developmentally appropriate activities and play structures for children to explore their large and small gross motor development. We focus on community wellness, social connections, one stop shop programming, workshops, sewing, English classes, Legal Aid, book groups, music, movement and more to build a robust program that helps families build resilience, relationships and tools to care for their families. We partner with several organizations to expand programs and help parents learn of other resources in the community. We always provide meals during program and there is often food to take, as many of our families experience food insecurity. Staff are their to create a welcoming environment, support parents and caregivers and best of all, engage with the babies and children. During the warmer months, we go to the Ethan Allen Homestead where we have our garden program. Families can sign up for their own plots of land to have their own gardens, grow their own food, and attend workshops on improving their gardens or making different types of food. We also support the garden with volunteers, play with the children and provide meals. Staff take families on nature walks, explore the museum and play games with families. This program runs 2 times a week, but families can tend to their gardens all week. We provide transportation to families who can not get to the gardens by their own means and provide concrete supports such as food, diapers, wipes and other needs the families may ask help with.

See Schedule OFood Pantry- during the pandemic, we started up our food pantry program. This was the greatest need for families in a time of great uncertainty, safety and health concerns. We began in 2020 providing food for 35 families. Over the course of the year, this grew to 150 families a week we were delivering to. We also learned that we needed to provide culturally appropriate foods to families as different dietary needs and foods were needed. We worked with local farms, local markets and volunteers to provide a range of different foods. We also provided gift cards for families to get supplies they needed. Our pantry boxes included fresh produce, rice, beans, eggs, canned goods, masks, sanitizer, vaccine and testing information, laundry soap, cleaning supplies and more. We used the delivery method as a way not only to support food and supplies, but a way to make connections to families, see a familiar friendly face and a person to check in with. With so much isolation happening for families, these connections were very important. It also gave us a chance to see the kids and interact with them. We began traveling playgroups as an offshoot of this because parents were needing and missing this kind of support. This effort to support families with food and supplies was a group effort and gave us wonderful opportunities to work with many other organizations. Our model was adopted by the Vermont Foodbank, one of our very good partners. We continue to provide food for all of our program participants. Fresh produce, food staples such as rice, flour, eggs, and we will provide prepared meals for families when necessary. We also provide food cards for families who need more flexibility with their food purchases and allows them to get what they need for their family. We also provide food for families who attend our Clinic and our Computer LIteracy Classes.

See Schedule OHealthy Families from the Start- this is a perinatal program focused on supporting families prenatally and then at least 3 months postpartum. The main objective of this program is to prevent and reduce the affects of postpartum mood and anxiety disorders for birthing mothers and support the family with basic needs, social emotional support, language interpretation, birth prep classes and what to expect at the hospital when giving birth. This relatively new program has really covered some gaps for families who can't afford additional supports. Staff home visit each family weekly, addressing each families' needs and connecting them to vital resources. One of the important values we hold in this program is that families, many of whom are BIPOC, experience child birth with dignity and respect. After the initial 3 months postpartum of support, home visiting will be minimized but meanwhile, the families have been integrated into other aspects of the Family Room, such as Baby Massage, Moms groups/ Dads group and playgroups to make sure each family can build their network of support and learn from other parents.

See Schedule OPreschool:Our 5 star preschool program serves 16-18 children, ages 3-5 years old. Pre-pandemic, this is how many children attended, but during this time, we reduced the number to about 50%enrollment. Children attend 3 days a week for about 4 hours a day. We provide them with breakfast and lunch and focus on an emergent curriculum. Staff work with parents when they come to transition their children to a school like atmosphere. Many of the families have attended other Family Room programs thus are familiar with the staff and the spaces we have. During this period, we were able to build a bathroom in the preschool space as well as an access door to get to the playground. This help cut down on transitions for the classroom and keep the preschoolers and the staff safe from having to cross pollinate with other programs. We also provided supports for families and assisted families with their children's transition to kindergarten and the public school system. Children experienced a range of activities from art expression, literacy and language (many of our children's first language was not English), singing, field trips to the garden, Burlington City Arts, Very Merry Theater and local farms. We included parents in some of the off campus activities so they could be engaged in their children's education and experience.

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