In 2023, Georgetown Health Foundation opened the Carver Center for Families to function as a community hub for families and individuals. Community Impact sat down with CEO Scott Alarcon to dive deeper into what the center does for the Georgetown area.
Why was the Carver Center for Families initially opened?
Alarcon: We felt like its location in southeast Georgetown was right in the bull’s-eye of the area we want to serve in terms of individuals who have limited access to resources. We saw this opportunity to take a community asset in the old Carver Elementary School and bring resources to one location, with a focus on what those in the surrounding neighborhoods prioritized. Off the bat, the top priorities were parent and caregiver support and education, resource navigation and opportunities to improve wellness and mental health.
How does the center help women, infants and children (WIC)?
Alarcon: WIC and Community Nutrition program provides nutrition education, healthy foods and breastfeeding support for pregnant women, new mothers and families with children younger than the age of five.
What other services are available?
Alarcon: We have another entity called STARRY, which actually helps us manage the different groups that provide programs there, welcomes all visitors and helps them find what they’re looking for, and offers a wide range of programs for families with children ages 0-17. We also have The Georgetown Project, Bridges to Growth in there. We have Backpack Buddies. Any Baby Can and Mommie Support Network also offer programs for families with children. A Gift of Time provides weekly respite for caregivers with loved ones living with dementia. Foundation Communities comes to Carver to assist with enrollment and issues with Medicaid, SNAP, and TANF a couple of days every month. We have the YMCA that has been offering and will continue to offer programming to kids through a renovated gym.
What are the Five Protective Factors for the center?
Suzy Pukys (vice president of strategic philanthropy): The Carver Center for Families adheres to the Strengthening Families Framework developed nearly 20 years ago by the Center for the Study of Social Policy. This framework encourages communities to focus on building five key protective factors that are known to increase family stability, nurture healthy child development and reduce child abuse and neglect. These factors build the confidence of parents and caregivers, support connection between them and others in our community, and reduce their stress. Organizations that provide programming at Carver must support one or more of these factors.
Five Protective Factors:
- Parental resilience
- Social and emotional competence of children
- Parental knowledge of child development and parenting skills
- Social connections
- Concrete support for parents
Alarcon: The really interesting thing we've seen in the first year or so, is the connection between when someone arrives at the center and the organizations wrapping around individuals. So in the past, if you had different organizations in different locations, it's much more challenging. It's created this kind of hub where individuals can go and there's a continuum of care that's provided that is much smoother than traveling all over the region or all over the city to try to find access to those resources.
To learn more about the work Georgetown Health Foundation and the Carver Center for Families does, visit their websites.
The above story was produced by Community Impact's Senior Multi Platform Journalist Sierra Rozen with information solely provided by the local business as part of its "sponsored content" purchase through our advertising team.
