Five Questions With: Therese Curtin

Therese Curtin is the executive director of Connecting for Children and Families Inc., a Woonsocket-based nonprofit that helps support children through educational opportunities and family support.

Curtin spoke with the Providence Business News about what programs the organization offers, how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the organization and what it hopes for when the new school year starts at the end of August.

 

PBN: Explain the summer learning programs being offered by your organization, and what will the programs do to help children in the community?

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CURTIN: Connecting for Children and Families offers four dynamic summer learning programs:

  • Camp Discovery (Grades K-2)
  • Chillin’ and Skillin’ (Grades 3-5) A Summer Learning Initiative sponsored by Women United and Hasbro [Inc.] through United Way
  • Get Connected (Grades 6-8)
  • Stay Connected (Grade 9 Transition Program)

Funding for the summer camps other than Chillin’ and Skillin’ is provided by the Rhode Island Department of Education’s 21st Century Community Learning Center grant initiative and the Corporation for National and Community Service – Americorps Program. This year, CCF’s summer learning programs are being held through Aug. 14. We have transformed these programs from in-person to virtual camps to ensure everyone’s health and safety. Additionally, school buildings were closed, which we typically use as a home base to begin and end each camp day.

CCF staff, community partners and program providers went through a series of trainings to prepare them to teach and interact with students virtually. For many, this was the first time they had ever taught virtually and had to adjust their mindset from in-person lesson planning to creating and implementing virtual lessons.

Our programs are educational, with hands-on, fun activities designed to help with summer learning loss. Each of our summer learning programs offers students live instruction – not prerecorded – in the areas of science, math, literacy, music, art, cooking, physical activity and career exploration, as well as help with summer reading. As part of our virtual camp, each student receives activity kits to complete hands-on projects at home with the guidance of our high-quality instructors. All of our camps and the accompanying activity kits are completely free to families this summer.

Our staff provides students with social and emotional learning opportunities in a safe, supportive environment, including virtual team building and spirit week activities to promote a positive camp community. Positive relationship-building with program staff and summer instructors from the R.I. Museum of Science and Art and Roger Williams Park Zoo is a key component of our camps. Also, students help their community by participating in service-learning projects that are important to them. This year our children are writing letters and creating posters for front-line workers at Landmark Hospital and nursing home facilities.

PBN: How has Connecting for Children and Families been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic?

CURTIN: Like everyone else in the community, CCF was caught off guard by the rising cases of COVID-19. With orders from Gov. Gina M. Raimondo, our early-learning center and after-school enrichment programs were shut down in early March. Once we got over this initial shock, we quickly stepped up to muster all of our collective determination and creativity to ensure that resources continued to be available for our families. As a result, most of CCF’s programs and services continue to operate during these trying times.

Programs providing essential services to our community, such as the food pantry and our volunteer income tax assistance program, have continued in person, with staff following health and safety protocols from the [U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] and R.I. Department of Health. It turns out, our VITA program was the only site in Rhode Island to stay open over the past four months and we continue to prepare free income tax returns for eligible families.

PBN: How has the organization been able to adjust to the current situation?

CURTIN: To adjust to the “new normal,” CCF established a new food-delivery program for front-line health workers in Woonsocket nursing facilities, who are working long hours and can’t get to the grocery store. We also deliver to the elderly and disabled who can’t leave their home because they are at high risk for the coronavirus, and single heads of households who are afraid to take their children food shopping.

Our Center for Financial Success quickly pivoted from an in-person workforce-training program to a virtual program, and recently graduated two classes with a total of 34 students. Typically, 80% of participants become employed within 90 days of graduation.

CCF adapted summer learning programs to a virtual world in a short amount of time. This transition came about through a tremendous team effort by CCF staff, community partners and program instructors to organize and coordinate the best possible virtual programming.

PBN: Have some students that you know of experienced learning loss toward the end of the school year because of the pandemic? If so, are you worried about any possible long-term effects that such a loss may have?

CURTIN: Many students toward the end of the school year were feeling very overwhelmed with the adjustment to distance learning, not having their teacher to help them in person, and not being able to see their friends. It definitely was a challenge for many students to keep up with their work to complete the school year.

It is definitely a concern that students will experience learning loss as a result of distance learning, especially those who need additional supports to succeed in school, such as special education students and multilingual learners.

Summer learning loss has always been something we’ve worked very hard to address. As the current situation evolves, we’ll continue to adapt the ways we work to mitigate learning loss to include any impacts of distance education.

PBN: What do you hope for when the next school year starts up in late August?

CURTIN: My hope is that schools will be a safe place for students to return to, even if only for a portion of the school week. Being at school will help students get back on track with their studies and will also give them opportunities to be with teachers and classmates, something students have been missing for months. CCF will create a hybrid model too for after-school enrichment programs, in line with the district’s reopening plan, where K-12 students will have the opportunity to participate in some in-person, as well as virtual, after-school enrichment.

We understand how schools are struggling with some of the guidelines for reopening schools. We’ve experienced our own challenges in reopening our early-learning center in June. We’re all concerned about keeping each other healthy and safe. We want to do the right thing. Our kids and families are our No. 1 priority.

James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.