DESPITE its tough reputation, Bromley-Heath is promising territory. Home to several hundred preschool children in households with average earnings of less than $19,000, the housing project has grabbed headlines for violence and crime, including a major drug bust that took place in 2006. But it is also full of families that want to do the right thing for their children.
Those families are the reason that Wayne Ysaguirre, president of Associated Early Care and Education, a nonprofit child care provider, wants to deliver a turbo-charged preschool program in the development. The new program would start at birth, engage whole families as soon as possible, stick with children through age 5, and send them to school fully prepared.
Ysaguirre's intriguing plan offers a valuable test of what it takes to help poor children overcome their disadvantages.
The promise of preschool is tantalizing: Send very young children to good programs, and they'll have greater success in school and in their working lives. But delivering on this promise is tough, given bureaucratic barriers and constraints on public funding. It isn't any one agency's job to build stronger families. The Department of Social Services acts in cases of abuse and neglect. The welfare department serves families that meet its income criteria. Missing is an institutionalized approach to helping families in general thrive.
Ysaguirre has a bold proposal to fill the gap and provide new proof of the public worth of early education.
"What we're doing isn't enough to close the achievement gap," says Ysaguirre, who recalls a mother who convinced him that if he wanted to help her children succeed, he also had to help her.
The federal Head Start program does a great deal of work with families. But Ysaguirre wants to go beyond this model.
To build a new program, Associated would tear down a building that used to house a health center. The new building would be a hothouse of opportunities for 150 children, including 85 who are now in an Associated program that's run in a basement. In addition to schooling, children would get enhanced healthcare and nutrition services, since food can be, as Ysaguirre says, "discretionary" for parents who are struggling to pay the rent. Instead of having to run around to various agencies, parents could go to one place to get help and referrals to manage immediate needs such as child care, housing, and help dealing with troubled teenage offspring. Then parents could shift from stabilization to life-building, getting the skills to act on dreams of owning a home or a catering business.
Associated hopes to raise $8 million to cover construction costs. And, ideally, construction would be completed by the end of 2010.
A key ingredient would be partners - community organizations, health centers, and Boston's schools. Good data are also vital. The program would track children and their outcomes over time to develop a longitudinal database.
A similar family-building program is also being launched in Allston-Brighton, by the United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley, the Home for Little Wanderers, and 30 community partners. It's an experiment in figuring out what children need to succeed, and it is backed by a $300,000 investment from United Way, money used to fund the program and pay for an evaluation. Families will get connected to cutting-edge services - such as culturally aware mental health services for immigrants - and they'll be connected to other families to build a stronger community.
Both these efforts should fit well into Boston and the United Way's Thrive in Five program, a campaign to bring world-class education and services to the city's youngest children. But both also face considerable challenges.
"It takes a long time to do this work. You cannot force relationships, and you cannot force trust," says Peg Sprague, United Way's vice president of community impact.
It can also take time to help families manage mental illness, substance abuse, and other problems. People can relapse into addictions. Hard-won jobs can be lost. In these cases, finding ways to create second and third chances will be essential.
Both programs will also need more private donations so that they will have the fiscal freedom to experiment and fill the gaps that exist among public funding sources.
Still, with an enhanced approach, early education could be a fountain of family success.
