Babyland Family Services, Inc.

Description

Babyland Family Services, Inc., began in Newark, New Jersey in 1967 as a small nursery serving only 26 children. Today, it serves over 1,500 children, women, and families, and provides not only age-appropriate early childhood education, but also parenting skills; foster parent recruitment and training; family life counseling to domestic violence victims and abusers; training in community building; and other assistance to some of the area’s most disadvantaged children and families. The services are provided by a network of partners in the community who are working to make Newark’s neighborhoods safer places for children to live and grow.

Babyland delivers a broad spectrum of child care and family services through a wide variety of partnerships. Some of the partners include:

• The New Community Corporation (NCC), a non-profit community development corporation;
• New Jersey Division of Youth and Families;
• Early Head Start;
• The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and NBI Medical Center;
• Northern New Jersey Maternal and Childcare Consortium;
• Newark Department of Health and Human Services;
• Essex County Community College, Newark Public Schools, and Newark Pre-School Council (a Head Start collaborative);
• New Jersey Family Service Bureau, Integrity House, New Jersey Preventive Child Abuse, New Jersey Division of Youth and Families, Newark Emergency Services, and Essex-Newark Legal Services; and
• St. Rose of Lima, Our Lady of Sorrows, Our Lady of Good Council Church, Caribbean Haitian Council (CAHACO), United Way, and Association for Children of New Jersey.

After the 1967 riots, much of Newark’s Central Ward lay in ruins. Residents lost housing and employment, and were desperately in need of social services. One of the greatest needs in the community was child care. Several grassroots organizations, including Babyland Nurseries, formed a cooperative network to provide support to the community. Babyland’s Director, Mary Smith, and a coalition of suburban and inner-city women started Babyland Nursery, the first non-profit infant care program in New Jersey and one of the first such centers in the nation. Early support and funding came from Operation Housewives, a program that directed resources of suburban women to meet the needs of women in inner-city Newark.

The first Babyland Nursery served 26 children in a vacant seven-room apartment in a local housing project. Seven new Babyland sites were built over the years, with support from a variety of partners and resources. During the early years, Mary Smith, Babyland's founder, worked tirelessly to develop state guidelines for infant child care and to push the state to implement them. In 1973, Babyland received federal and state funding under the newly established state standards.

In 1989, Babyland established one of the first child care centers in the nation to care for the growing population of children with HIV/AIDS. Babyland also assists in removing "boarder babies"—babies who have been abandoned at birth—from hospitals and placing them in long-term foster homes. Lastly, Babyland partners with St. Rose of Lima School to offer after-school and summer enrichment programs, and community outreach.

Babyland has developed a unique set of services, using many components of Head Start, Early Head Start, and United Way’s Success By 6® models. Babyland provides child care for over 750 children aged 3 months to 4½ years in seven sites and two 24-hour 7-day facilities for foster children and domestic violence clients. In addition, Babyland services include:

• A family child care network that recruits, trains and supports family child care providers.
• Specialized child care and family services, such as home visiting, foster and child care, and care for children who are homeless, abused and/or neglected, "boarder babies," children with HIV/AIDS, and children at risk of educational failure. Transportation is provided for many of the children.
• Medical services provided by pediatric and mental health specialists. Family-focused comprehensive counseling services are offered by social workers and home visitors. Babyland Family Services, Inc. provides medical and dental visits in partnership with Project Hope.
• Parent education and skill development. Training programs for parents teach parenting skills, as well as address abusive crisis situations, child development, health and nutrition education, access to public assistance benefits, and guidance on housing, education, and vocational training programs. Since 1988, Babyland has operated a parent education program for teenage mothers that offers counseling, parenting courses, and child development workshops.

Through Babyland’s partners, at-risk families may also receive services such as affordable and transitional housing; dental and prenatal services; AIDS support; immunization; emergency shelter; child care information and referral; after-school care and summer enrichment programs; pre-school transition programs; counseling and intervention for family crises and substance abusers; and legal services. Programs also include workforce development, Youth Development Clinic (for teen parents), and community outreach to Newark’s Latino and Haitian residents.

Babyland’s current $7.7 million budget is supported by federal funds (14.7%), state sources (44.2%), county funds (11.6%), and city funds (14.8%). The remaining 14.7% comes from grants, parent fees, and other sources.

Babyland funders include:

• New Jersey Department of Community Affairs;
• United States Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and Housing and Urban Development;
• Maternal Child Health Consortium;
• Administration for Children and Families;
• Early Head Start;
• private foundations, such as the Turrell and Schumann Funds; the All Kids Foundation, New Jersey Children’s Trust; and Community Foundation of New Jersey;
• City of Newark;
• local businesses and industries; and
• community-based organizations such as hospitals, religious institutions, and private donors.

Private businesses, such as Fleet Bank, Prudential, AT&T, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, and the Athletes Association provide cash and technical support to on-site programs. In-kind gifts have included computers from Lucent Technology Co.

All programs and services of Babyland have a formal evaluation to assess impacts and improved outcomes for children and their families. All services, including home visiting and the family care network, are modeled after Early Head Start practices and evaluated according to Early Head Start performance standards. Babyland also uses some of the performance standards of Success By 6® to measure the results of the program. These evaluations have shown that at-risk children provided with quality child care from birth to age 6 have higher rates of school success, college attendance, and employment.

Babyland has been able to both sustain and expand its programs by working with many diverse partners in both the public and private sectors. As New Jersey implements welfare reform throughout the state, the need for child care is increasing. As a result, Babyland looks to expand its facilities and services. Future plans include:

• helping family child care providers apply for low-cost small business and economic development loans;
• creating additional child care slots and services by working with businesses, such as airline companies, to create a 24-hour child care center for employees who work non-traditional hours and second or third shifts; and
• working with communities to make their neighborhoods safer places for children to grow and learn.

Babyland has been used as a model for developing child care and comprehensive family services by other communities in New Jersey, as well as in Atlanta, Georgia, and South Africa. Babyland is also looked to as a national leader in linking affordable quality child care to economic development and comprehensive family services.

Collaboration is key to success. Through collaboration and partnership, Babyland and all of its community partners have used their combined resources to provide the services families need: housing, jobs, and child care. Babyland also has been able to tap the expertise of other collaborators, such as drug abuse programs, without having to develop or maintain those skills and facilities itself. This collaboration builds bridges, makes friends in the community, and provides for efficient delivery of services.

Find the right players and supporters. It is critical to identify and nurture key supporters. It took a long time to find the "right" people in state agencies and businesses, to develop a public relations/marketing plan, and to become known to potential supporters and funders. Babyland was able to develop fruitful relationships with key supporters by inviting them to visit its sites and letting the programs speak for themselves.

Work with a community development corporation (CDC). Babyland was able to move quickly because its leaders knew that even if funding was not readily available, the NCC would provide letters in the interim in support of Babyland’s good track record and its commitment to quality service.

Mary Palmer Smith
Founder and Executive Director
Babyland Family Services, Inc.
755 South Orange Avenue
Newark, New Jersey 07106
Phone: (973) 399-3400
Fax: (973) 399-2076
Web site: http://www.babyland.org [Editor's note (12-14-04): this link is no longer active]