Family
For the Families
Smart addresses the needs of every member of the family. Recognizing and building on the strengths of families enables us to nurture strong and trusting relationships in a way that other service providers have not. Our goal is for families to confidently embrace their role as their child’s first teacher. Adult caregivers have access to crisis intervention and family stabilization services and are encouraged to set long and short-term goals to improve their economic status and to overcome social challenges. Smart provides services to every member of the family. School aged siblings are offered tutoring and homework help, along with programming provided by Girl Scouts, Big Brothers/Big Sisters and other partner organizations. Referrals are made for additional support services as deemed necessary.
Breakthrough Parenting
This comprehensive, curriculum-based program helps parents understand how children think and how they function at different ages. It helps them to provide effective discipline by teaching children what to do, rather than only what not to do, and coaches them to avoid using manipulation and violence.
Focusing on Fatherhood
This cross-site program is facilitated by trained male family leaders from Smart communities. Programming includes open discussions, family trips, guest speakers, parenting skills, and workshops, as well as education, employment, and support and referral services. Smart’s LEAP (Leadership, Empowerment, and Advocacy Program) for Woodland Terrace, in Washington, D.C., is a curriculum-based program specifically designed to provide urban youth and families with support for setting and achieving their own goals for self-sufficiency and healthier lifestyles.
Adult Education and Family Literacy
Smart offers a selection of adult education courses, including on topics such as English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), high school equivalency credentialing, computer skills, job readiness, and family literacy, using curricula that include a focus on child development and school readiness.
Financial Literacy/Career Planning Program
Cohorts of families are engaged in activities that explore attitudes and values related to money, develop skills for saving and budgeting, and identify goals for self-sufficiency. This eight-week intensive course includes individual coaching and encourages sharing of goals with the group. We also offer one-time workshops on specific topics of interest. Smart program staff members have been trained to provide basic financial literacy to all families.
Support and Empowerment Groups
These loosely structured group meetings engage families in early learning, provide parenting support, and help to prevent the social isolation that often comes with raising small children in challenging circumstances.
Crisis Intervention, Information, and Referral to Vital Services
Smart provides support and advocacy for families during crises and links families to existing community services and supports, such as food and clothing pantries, substance abuse treatment, counseling services, and housing.
Family Leadership Program
This cross-site program has a specially designed curriculum to support and empower caregivers from underserved communities. Leaders attend workshops and trainings on a variety of topics to learn more about issues that families and children in their community face, and to build their skills as advocates, trainers, and leaders.
Address the Stress
This program is led by licensed, multicultural clinicians and includes summer camp, as well as group and individual therapy, to help children and families cope with stress and to build resiliency. It helps them address the challenging effects of toxic stress and trauma, including post-traumatic stress disorder.
Smart 2 School
This program addresses families’ anxiety about navigating the Boston Public School system. It guides them through the registration process and the first day of school, including school visits, workshops, special guest speakers, and more. Smart 2 School is a curriculum-based program, providing families with the guidance and support they need as they make the transition to school. Smart 2 School prepares children, but it also prepares families to confidently continue in the roles they have as their children’s first teachers and advocates.
Parenting Workshops
This series of one-time workshops explores topics chosen by families to address their specific parenting challenges. For example, ReadBoston has facilitated an Early Words workshop to provide in-depth, hands-on, individualized support for parents to help them improve the language development of their children. Workshops are also presented on issues such as immigration, criminal offender record information (CORI), housing, and other subjects of concern to families in our communities.
Where We Serve:
