“I kind of lucked my way into this job,” said Deborah Zipkin, Director of the Family Resource Center at Charter Oak Academy.

Deborah used to be a teacher and never imagined that she would be anything else.  When her family moved from New York to West Hartford nine years ago, she began job hunting and stumbled upon a Bridge ad for a parent educator.  The Bridge Family Center hired Deborah and promoted her in a short time to Director of the Family Resource Center (FRC).

“I have absolutely fallen in love with working with parents, grandparents, and children.  I could never go back to a classroom again.  This is just too much fun!  I like getting to work with all of the generations in the family.”

 The Family Resource Center at Charter Oak Academy, operated by The Bridge in collaboration with West Hartford Public Schools, is one of 61 Family Resource Centers funded by the Connecticut Department of Education.  Following the blueprint provided by the State, the Charter Oak FRC creates connections between families and school, nurtures the development of healthy families, and builds a network of support for children from birth through age eleven.  The FRC at Charter Oak was developed because of needs that teachers recognized in families: that parents were trying to do their best for their children, but sometimes needed help.  The program has been so successful that it has expanded into four more of West Hartford’s elementary schools: Smith, Whiting Lane, Webster Hill, and Wolcott Schools.

Family Resource Centers are committed to connecting families to schools before children are of school age.  “Often, but not always,” says Deborah,  “we are dealing with parents, grandparents, and other family members who have had less than positive experiences with schools themselves.  It is difficult for them to walk into a school and feel comfortable.  We give them a whole new way to look at school.  The FRC is a place where you can bring your baby and be welcomed and treated with respect.  You can have coffee with an FRC staff person or a teacher—one on one—in a very casual, informative, and nurturing way.” 

Research backs up the FRC concept.  According to Deborah, the research confirms that if parents get involved in the school when children are young, they tend to stay involved.  They are the ones who become PTA members and board members.  And when parents are involved in school, children do better in school—they have better attendance, better behavior, better test scores and they tend to graduate.  Parents themselves often go back to school, to local adult education programs, community college, or to finish a college degree.

The Charter Oak Family Resource Center is a warm, caring, bustling center of activity.  The doors open at 7:00 a.m.  The  administrative assistant, Connie Cyr, arrives and puts on a pot of coffee.  “We want parents and teachers to know they can come by any time of day and fresh coffee will be brewing,” said Deborah.  “And there’s real milk.  Both parents and teachers stop by in the morning.  Robin Drago, our parent educator, and I are in by 7:45 a.m.”

Most days start with a playgroup for children from birth to age 4 and a parent or caregiver.  Though playgroup doesn’t officially start until 9:00 a.m., families begin to arrive at 8:40 a.m. after dropping off their school age children upstairs.  By 9 a.m. the hallway is full of strollers and the room is full of children and moms, grandmoms, an occasional Dad, or home child-care providers.  The first hour or so is spent doing messy art projects and playing with all the toys in the room. 

“Then about 10 a.m.,” said Deborah, “we all clean up and have circle time together. We sing because we are working on language skills with the children, dance because we are working on small and gross motor skills, and always read a story because we are working on family literacy skills.  I’m beginning to think we shouldn’t call them playgroups, because there is a tremendous amount of learning that goes on here.  Then we have snack time—crackers or cookies and juice.  The children know the routine.  After snack it is time to go home, but most people don’t go home; they tend to stay until lunch time.”

In the afternoon, Lunch Clubs—fifth grade peer support groups facilitated by Janet Zaleski, youth counselor—begin.  Small groups of boys or girls talk about lots of things: transition to middle school, which makes some kids very nervous, and changes that happen in their bodies when they are 10 or 11. 

“It’s a good place to talk about what’s on their minds,” said Deborah.  “Although there’s a curriculum, we’ve learned that you have to be very flexible working with 5^th graders, and your curriculum might go out the window.” 

After school, a wide variety of activities take place, depending on the day and time of year.  It could be the K.I.D.S. (Kids in Divorce and Separation) group; theater rehearsal; CAPS, the newest FRC program that provides support groups for foster children; or something just plain old fun, such as basket weaving.

In the evening, the FRC is used for: Family Fundamentals, an English class for the whole family; child care for Adult Education classes being held upstairs; PTA Board meetings; or any variety of meetings.  About 9:00 p.m., the FRC closes for the day.

“Now here’s what blows me away,” said Deborah.  “After nine years at the FRC, I am in awe of the ability of little ones to learn.  There are times when I walk into a supermarket in town, and along will come one of our babies from playgroup—a child who cannot yet talk, under 7 months old—and he’ll hold up his hands and make a fist, meaning the beginning of circle time.  Now he can’t tell me that.  And I am not bragging about what we’re providing.  I’m just in awe of what babies are capable of.  Before they can talk they can make the fist because they know it means circle time and I am the circle time person.

“I have marvelous staff,” said Deborah.  “There are no prima donnas here. Everybody does everything from washing out the coffeepot to answering the phone to running programs.  The children call me Deborah or Robin and they call Robin, Robin or Deborah.  We decided that that means person who loves me when I’m at the FRC.

“What we are doing here,” said Deborah, “is working to create partnerships between families and schools—all for the benefit of children.”

In fiscal 2002, the FRC at Charter Oak and its satellite programs at Smith, Whiting Lane, Webster Hill, and Wolcott Schools served 1,050 family members.

Back to Family Resource Centers Page