Family Support Services is awarded a $17,600 grant by the McLean Contributionship to purchase sensory therapy equipment for its Fairmount Early Intervention Center. 

As ongoing science and research teaches us more about the ways children with significant delays in their development learn, the Fairmount Early Intervention Center (Fairmount) adjusts its curriculum to new “best practice” strategies for learning success. 

Thanks to a recent McLean Contributionship grant, therapists and teachers at the Fairmount Center will now have access to sensory-based therapeutic equipment to expand the Center’s implementation of sensory therapy.  The new sensory equipment will offer children stimulating or calming environmental supports that help focus their minds more successfully on critical learning tasks.

The Mclean grant will be used to fund a variety of equipment and sensory spaces.  It will be used to install sensory centers in each classroom with aural, tactile and visual tools to help calm and focus a child’s mind for learning or therapeutic purposes.  It will also purchase gross motor equipment (a variety of swings) for vestibular input through linear and orbital movement.  It will fund the construction of a new climbing wall to develop strength, balance and spatial sensory awareness, and it will be used to buy equipment that supports proprioceptive input through supervised “crashing” and jumping activities.

Multi sensory spaces work by providing a drastic environmental change for specific therapeutic purposes.  Children with a variety of developmental delays, including autism, rely on sensory spaces to help them progress towards developmental goals with the help of their teachers and therapists. 

Sensory spaces offer controlled exposure to shapes, sensations, sounds, and projected lights that are controlled by the therapist.  These stimulating and relaxing opportunities allow children to come to terms with, and learn to control, their interactions with their environment. 

The Esther Gowen Hood Trust, a Mellon Mid-Atlantic Charitable Trust, recently awarded a $13,000 grant to fund the food and nutrition program at Family Support Services’ (FSS) Family School program. This grant, which funds daily meals for families enrolled in parenting education programs at Family School, makes it possible to educate parents about infant and child nutrition; coaching them on the development of nutritionally sound eating habits, setting expectations for age appropriate behavior at mealtimes; and helping families avoid obesity-inducing habits of over feeding. 

The food and nutrition program uses a curriculum developed in 2005 with a First Hospital Foundation grant.  Its goal is to teach parents simple, inexpensive, and achievable cooking practices, knowledge of basic nutritional guidelines and calorie counting, and support the formation of affordable and healthy daily shopping habits.

Families who complete the food and nutrition program have the necessary tools to maintain better eating and parenting habits in home or shelter environments.  The added emotional benefit of the program is the establishment of structured family mealtimes and shared conversations among parents and children.

By funding daily meals for families at Family School, The Esther Gowen Hood Trust, a Mellon Mid-Atlantic Charitable Trust, also provides relief to low-income children and parents who live stressful lives in often-deprived neighborhoods.

Family Support Services (www.FSSinc.org) is a non-profit social services agency founded in 1976 to prevent child neglect and abuse.  Its seven programs focus on the needs of young children and their families.  FSS’s programs serve Philadelphia families who are overcoming histories of child neglect or abuse, birth to five year old children with a 25% or greater delay in development, and Haverford and Radnor Township parents in need of before or after school care for their elementary school children.

The Fourjay Foundation recently awarded a $5000 grant to help fund a new child welfare client tracking software system at Family Support Services.  Developed specifically for the needs of social services agencies, the new software program is being implemented by SocialSolutions.  The Fourjay Foundation’s chief purpose is to improve health and/or promote education, within Philadelphia, Montgomery, and Bucks counties in southeastern Pennsylvania.  Their grant will help offset a portion of the licensing and training costs associated with the software purchase, enabling the agency to focus its resources on customizing and implementing the new system.   The SocialSolutions software will better track child welfare clients’ progress towards goals, provide timely data as to enrollment, progress, and program attendance, and result in better targeting of programs to individual needs.     

Introducing Shawn M. Lacy, Esq.

Family Support Services is very pleased to announce that on May 1, 2006, Shawn M. Lacy, Esq. was named as the new Executive Director of the agency.  Ms. Lacy succeeds Virginia C. Peckham, Ph.D. who retired this spring after 16 years as Executive Director. 

Ms. Lacy holds a Bachelors’ Degree from Franklin and Marshall College and a law degree from Rutgers University.  She is a graduate of the Baldwin School, Bryn Mawr, and has been an active member of the Baldwin Alumnae Executive Board.  She was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by Baldwin in May, 2006. 

Shawn M. Lacy brings a wealth of experience to her new appointment.  She previously served as the Assistant Chief of the Philadelphia Defenders Association, Child Advocacy Unit, and has had over 20 years representing dependent children in Philadelphia.  She has been a leader in the Defenders and Child Welfare community, and has spent her career empowering families to rise to meet the many challenges of parenting despite poverty, histories of trauma and other barriers to stability.  She brings both compassion and passion to her work, and is pleased to be able to devote her energy, experience and resources to Family Support Services.

Ms. Lacy’s strong leadership skills and her reputation as a highly effective and committed professional make her the ideal choice to head Family Support Services.  Family Support Services’ Board of Directors and staff warmly welcome Ms. Lacy as their new Executive Director.

Family Support Services celebrated its 30-year history at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute and the Main Line Estate Ardrossan

On Sunday April 23rd Family Support Services Inc. (FSS), a non-profit social services agency, celebrated its 30th anniversary with a fundraising event at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute followed by a dinner at the Main Line estate Ardrossan.  The event honored outgoing Executive Director, Virginia C. Peckham, PhD, and welcomed incoming director Shawn. M. Lacy, Esq.  Ms. Lacy, a graduate of Franklin and Marshall College, is an alumnae of The Baldwin School and holds a law degree from Rutgers University.  Ms. Lacy received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Baldwin in May, 2006

Net proceeds from the event totaled more than $12,000 with portions of the funding designated for a music therapy program for developmentally delayed children, and for a school uniform fund for families on public assistance.  

The event featured a private screening of the film Billy Elliot, and an eight minute premier of It Is Our Name, a documentary film created by an eighteen year-old local filmmaker, Peter Binswanger.  A senior at the William Penn Charter School, Peter produced the film as part of his Senior Seminar Project.  The film featured two FSS programs; Family School, an intensive, center-based parenting program, and the Fairmount Early Intervention Center, a specialized preschool setting for children aged 3-5 with a 25% or greater delay in development.  Both programs are located in Philadelphia and serve predominately low income families.

Dinner guests at Ardrossan were treated to a wine tasting provided by Moore Brothers Wine Company of Pensauken, New Jersey, and a piano violin and cello performance by the Myer Schwartz Advanced Study Piano Trio, from the Settlement Music School.  Pianist Julia Sherriff played on a Steinway piano originally given to a member of the Montgomery family by the famous conductor Leopold Stokowsky.  Eric Simpson performed on the Violin, and Mitchel Lion performed on cello.  Pianist, Sandra Carlock, attended as trio coach.

There were more than 60 guests at the film, and 75 guests at the dinner.  Among them were Vivian W. Piasecki (Emeritus, Board of Directors,) Anne Hamilton, of Bryn Mawr,  Dorothy and David Binswanger, of Chestnut Hill, Emma Simpson (Board of Directors) and event committee members: Sally Bullard (President, Board of Directors), Grace Sharples Cooke, Jinger Hartsfield, Janet Klaus, Alida Lovell, Joan Mackie, Annie Markovits, George Newnham, Katharine Norris, Joan Purcell,  and Sonja Pettingill.

They may be little, but Philadelphia’s smallest graduates have a future.

The Fairmount Early Intervention Center, a center-based early intervention program for three to five year-old Philadelphia children with significant (25% or greater) delays in development, will hold its annual graduation ceremony at 10:30 AM on Thursday August 17th at the Community College of Philadelphia. 

Graduating children have spent three years of their lives working to attain learning goals that others take for granted.  They have learned to listen, express themselves and their needs, play with other children, drink out of a cup, and follow directions.  The graduation ceremony, which includes a musical performance along with the presentation of a certificate, celebrates the children’s accomplishments and recognizes their future potential as contributing members of our society.  Families, relatives, and teachers attend the graduation ceremony, often bringing gifts, bouquets, and balloons to celebrate the children’s performance.

Teachers and therapists at Fairmount work with young children in a preschool-like environment, two to five days per week, for up to three years.  The Fairmount Center’s goal is to develop each child’s individual abilities and prepare them for subsequent kindergarten or special education programs.  Fairmount Site Director, Nancy Kolva, believes in the innate capacity for growth and development of each child referred to the center, but is also attuned to a child’s emotional needs.  While some children come from stable home situations, many others live in transitional housing, or in foster care situations, and need a structured environment that is also emotionally supportive.  She says of the children; “we want to develop their potential, but we also want them to feel loved and cared for.”

Graduates leave the Fairmount center to attend kindergarten, or special education programs run by the Philadelphia School District.  Some have been so successful at overcoming delays they are mainstreamed into regular kindergarten classes with minimal support. 

One of about 20 specialized Philadelphia programs for preschool children with physical, sensory, or cognitive delays in development, the Fairmount program is located at 2000 Hamilton Street, Philadelphia, PA 19130, and is run by a non-profit organization, Family Support Services, Inc.  The Fairmount Center receives most of its funding from The Pennsylvania Department of Education, through Elwyn Inc.

Time & Location — Thursday August 17th, 2006, from 10:30 — 11:20 at the Community College of Philadelphia, Winnet Student Life Building (at 17th Street between Spring Garden & Callowhill Streets).   Members of the press planning to attend should contact the Fairmount Center Director, Nancy Kolva at nkolva@fssinc.org or 215-851-0390.

Betty Surbeck, Ph.D., LCSW, presented in February 2006 at the Council on Social Work Education Annual Program Meeting, ‘Social Justice through Social Reform’, in Chicago, Illinois.

The presentation described an experiential exercise designed to increase social workers’ understanding of qualitative research methods. It also broadened social workers’ sensitivity to how individuals’ awareness of their own unique, positive coping skills can be an asset in social work interventions.

Family Support Services is awarded a $ 20,000 in-kind and $1000 cash grant from The Philadelphia Area Coaches Alliance (PACA)

The Philadelphia Area Coaches Alliance (PACA) awarded a new leadership coaching services grant to Family Support Services, Inc. (FSS) during a January 19th dinner it hosted at the Doubletree Hotel in Plymouth Meeting. The new program - Community Coaching Connection - is designed to benefit non-profit organizations in need of professional coaching services on a pro-bono basis.

At the dinner, Virginia C. Peckham, PhD, Executive Director of Family Support Services, and Amber Mackenzie, Associate Director for Child Welfare, were presented with a $20,000 in-kind gift of 72 hours of intensive leadership coaching services and a check for $1000 by 2005 President Julie Fuimano.

James Marley, Vice President of Marketing at PACA, said PACA's volunteer coaches will work with six FSS midlevel managers for at least six months, beginning with a leadership assessment, progressing to 72 hours of individual leadership coaching, and concluding with an evaluation. By adding the in kind coaching services grant to its cash donation, PACA members can be of greater service to the community and have a greater impact on the nonprofit community. FSS is the first recipient of the PACA in kind coaching grant and the third recipient of the cash donation.

Virginia Peckham, of FSS, said that she was grateful for the opportunity to develop leadership skills among agency program supervisors. She said that better leadership would translate into better early intervention services and more effective child abuse and neglect prevention programs.

The agency came to PACA’s attention through PACA Vice President of Corporate Affairs, Robert Isaacson, who has been independently working with FSS child welfare programs since 2000. Peckham credited Isaacson and PACA for their vision in both identifying and acting on the need for intensive coaching support in the non-profit sector.

FSS has been serving about 1500 children annually though child welfare, early intervention, and suburban childcare programs in Philadelphia and Delaware County. It focuses on birth to five year old children in Philadelphia, working to reduce child neglect and abuse through parenting education programs, and addressing significant delays in development with early intervention services. Its Delaware County programs support working parents with educational programs for kindergarten to grade five children in Radnor and Haverford school districts.

PACA is the Greater Philadelphia chapter of the International Coach Federation (ICF), the largest non-profit professional association of personal and business coaches, with more than 9,000 members in 134 countries.

Philadelphia Area Coaches Alliance PACA
Contact—James Marley, VP of Marketing
Phone: 610-649-3873 Email: marketing@philadelphiacoaches.org

Family Support Services Inc.
Contact—Grace Sharples Cooke, Development Coordinator
Phone: 610-352-7610 Email: development@fssinc.org

From left to right: Julie Fuimano, 2005 Past President, PACA; Robert Isaacson, VP Corporate Affairs PACA; Virginia Peckham, Executive Director, Family Support Services; Amber Mackenzie, Associate Director of Child Welfare, Family Support Services. 

Material Culture Event Story

The oriental carpet, furnishings, textile and antiques store, Material Culture, drew a large crowd of party-goers on November 5 th, each of whom donated $20 to support three nonprofit organizations; Family Support Services, Habitat for Humanity, and the Deprung Gomang Tibetan Monastery. Overall the event generated more than $20,000 of donations, and the large crowd of partygoers helped celebrate Material Culture’s 10 th anniversary in candle-lit galleries, dining on authentic cuisine while listening to Louisiana, East European and African Highlife musicians.

The party’s theme was “giving back” and was Material Culture’s response to a world in need of hurricane, educational and spiritual relief. Family Support Services’ parenting and Early Intervention programs form the back bone of an agency dedicated to helping very young children in the Philadelphia area. Material Culture’s support of the agency through this 10 th anniversary fundraiser serves as an important investment in the future success of Philadelphia’s children.

The Nonprofit Finance Fund has awarded an $11,000 grant to Family Support Services for renovations to its Fairmount Early Intervention Center facility at 2000 Hamilton Street, Philadelphia.

The Fairmount Center works with three to five year-old children with a 25% or greater developmental delay. The Nonprofit Finance Fund grant will allow the center to replace heavily trafficked flooring throughout the facility.

Family School Adopts the “Keys to Interactive Parenting Scale”

Family School has just signed on as the first center-based parenting education program to adopt the Keys to Interactive Parenting Scale (KIPS). KIPS is an observational tool designed to assess parenting behavior. Using it will mean that staff and parenting educators will be able to better track parenting skills among parents enrolled at Family School.

Family School is conducting this study in collaboration with Comfort Consults, LLC to determine the best uses of KIPS in their program. When introducing KIPS to Family School staff, Director Nefertiri Smarr explained, “KIPS provides us a way to objectively assess parental improvement.” According to Phil Gordon, one of the authors, “KIPS was designed to help those who work with parents (so they can) better see what they actually do when interacting with their children. By carefully defining 12 key parenting behaviors, we hope KIPS will help Family School customize their (program) services to parents’ individual needs.” More information on KIPS can be found at www.comfortconsults.com

Students at the Agnes Irwin School have initiated a new fundraising drive for therapy equipment at Fairmount Early Intervention Center with a $2000 donation, matched by additional funds from William Kozel and Karen Kludjian. After reviewing a grant proposal for new equipment for 3 to 5 year-old children with developmental delays, the students chose to help the project get started by stepping forward with their grant. The additional $1000-worth of matching funds from William Kozel and Karen Kludjian allowed the students’ grant to have a greater initial impact and taught the students a lesson in philanthropic fundraising.

The equipment, which can be purchased immediately, will be put to use in classrooms this fall, but the center hopes to raise another $17,000 in order to create several dedicated sensory integration spaces in multiple classrooms by the end of the school year. Site Director Nancy Kolva says that sensory integration rooms are effective in enhancing learning among children with developmental delays. They allow the therapist to both stimulate and sooth a child by controlling the learning environment with light, sound and sensation.

Teachers from The Shipley School and students and teachers from The Episcopal Academy put their artistic skills to use in mural painting service projects at Family School and Fairmount Early Intervention Center. Service minded – with thoughts of bringing delight to young children - they came armed with paintbrushes and ideas, to turn empty wall space into windows onto other worlds. They wanted to bring gardens indoors, covering empty walls with murals that could spark imaginative play, and, like magicians, they transformed ordinary space into something special.

“We were all happy to spend a hot summer afternoon painting murals,” Mary French, art teacher at Episcopal Academy said. “Art can have such a positive effect on how people grow.”

“It was fun,” said Fifth-grade Shipley teacher Christine Sweetman, “and we are ready to do more, whenever a project comes up.” We will definitely be able to paint the children’s chairs, too as a Martin Luther King day project with the students.”

The Esther Gowen Hood Trust, a Mellon Mid-Atlantic Charitable Trust, funds nutritional meals for Philadelphia families at Family School with a generous grant. An important part of keeping children healthy is teaching parents how to offer nourishing meals. This is what the Food and Nutrition program grant from the Esther Gowen Hood trust, a Mellon Mid-Atlantic trust, does for families enrolled in Family Support Services’ Family School in Southwest Philadelphia.

Sharing food, learning nutrition, planning meals and understanding their children’s needs helps parents develop healthy meal-time habits. By eating breakfast, snacks and lunch together with their children and Family School teachers and staff, parents learn strategies that help them avoid mealtime conflicts over food. They also learn about the kinds of food babies, toddlers, and preschoolers should eat, and how not to use food as punishment or rewards.