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Square One Awarded $7M from Children’s Trust of MA

Springfield, MA (July 11, 2022) – Thousands of families in Springfield will continue to benefit from Square One’s Healthy Families program, thanks to a grant award from Children’s Trust of Massachusetts totaling $1.4 million per year for the next five years.

“Square One is proud to continue to provide this vital service to families throughout greater Springfield and to serve as a model for other programs around the country,” says Melissa Blissett, Square One’s Vice President of Family Support Services. “The program encapsulates our mission, and with the success we have achieved since program inception in 2010, we are eager to continue the important work we have been engaged in with parents, their children, and their extended families.”

Healthy Families is a home-based family support and coaching program that supports first-time parents to help them create stable, nurturing environments for their children.

The program matches parents with trained professionals who visit families’ homes to provide support during pregnancy and the child’s first three years of life. Home visitors teach parents about proper baby care, promote nurturing and attachment, practice effective parenting skills, and ensure parents have a solid understanding of healthy child development. They also counsel parents on achieving personal goals such as going back to school or securing a job.

“Our goal in everything we do is to position our children for success in school and beyond,” says Square One President & CEO Dawn DiStefano. “In order to be successful in this goal, we know that we have to focus on the whole family and the challenges endured by both children and their parents. Our Healthy Families program enables us to take on this holistic approach to serving our community.”

Parents can sign up for the program as early as during pregnancy and continue up to the child’s third birthday. Square One’s professionally trained home visitors and supervisors work with the participating families to help tackle the challenges that parenting can bring on, find resources in the community, and support parents as they work to achieve personal goals such as completing school or finding the right job.

To for more information, visit www.startatsquareone.org or call 413.732.5183.

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The Children’s Trust supports a statewide network of over one hundred of the most effective family

support agencies across Massachusetts. Through our deep, long-lasting partnerships, we work hand-in-hand to provide quality services that help children and families thrive.

Since 1883, Square One has been committed to ensuring that all children and families have the opportunity to succeed at school, at work, and in life by providing educational programs, family support services, health and fitness resources, and a voice in the community. Square One knows that children grow up to become better educated and more successful academically, emotionally and socially when they have high-quality early education, nurturing adults to care for them, and a safe and healthy community in which to live.