The Growth and Opportunity Center, located at 311 Brown St., Martinsville, opened in February to focus on resources that promote a healthy family environment and reduce child abuse and neglect in the area.
Kaneshia Coles, the coordinator at the center, has been hard at work to make the center a success and outreach to the local community, with current offerings that include a Drop-In-Play event twice a week and plans for future programming, including cooking classes.
Drop-In-Play supports children from birth to 4 years of age who need a safe place to socialize. Parents are required to stay with their children and encouraged to play along with them. Parents with multiple children are welcome, and the service is free.
“We plan to highlight different resources during Drop-In-Play,” to ensure the play sessions are helpful to parents, Coles said. A sampling of the topics covered are financial literacy. The center also distributes information about Medicaid.
Its Ages and Stages Questionnaire screening is also available during play sessions to detect learning delays often associated with autism. The screening helps parents identify areas their child needs to work on before they reach school age.
The drop-in service is held from 10:30 a.m. to noon on Mondays and Tuesdays from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Registration is required.
Child engagement is just one of the many services offered by the center, which is a United Way initiative. The agency aims to identify families that have fallen into a cycle of poverty and direct them to resources that will help them take steps toward a healthier life.
“We take on a two-generation approach, meaning we’re not just looking at the parents or the child. We are looking at the entire family,” said Coles.
Food boxes are currently available to help families who have run into food insecurity. The center has partnered with the Virginia Workforce Development to help parents find employment that will further reduce the family’s financial burden.
The center also hopes to increase the number of children who stay with their parents, by providing knowledge about lesser-known caveats like the now-legal recreational use of marijuana that, when used around children, could cause family separation.
Family separation can lead to many children being raised by grandparents or other family members, who then need additional support to go through the child-rearing process. Resources have been created
to help these families, such as the non-profit Just Call Granny, which works alongside the United Way to provide community support.
The center’s first community listening session was held at Albert Harris Elementary School and provided an idea of which programs to start initially.
“The programs that will be run through the family resource center are based on community feedback,” said Coles, adding the feedback has already led the center to start planning a cooking class to educate parents on making healthy meals at home.
The center will continue to add more events over the coming months. More information about the center can be provided by calling 276-403-3516.
Parents interested in the Drop-In-Play event can speak with the center about special accommodations and registration.
The United Way has an active Facebook page that parents can follow for easy access to future announcements.
