This Spring, UNH launched a new initiative, The Center for the Wellbeing of New York’s Children and Families. The goal of this initiative is to support settlement houses as they pilot or expand program models that meet the social and emotional needs of young children in a family setting; enhance the educational skills and economic health of parents and families; and/or promote community health and wellness for children and families. By providing two-year funding and bringing together settlement houses, the Center will catalyze new, expanded, and enriched programs that incorporate a whole family approach benefiting children under the age of 21 with a particular emphasis on young children.

The inaugural cohort consists of 10 settlement houses serving communities across New York City:

Arab-American Family Support Center will run Caregiver-Child Bonding Circles in Arabic and Bangla to support children in meeting critical developmental milestones and mitigate the impact of trauma while building foundations for literacy and promoting economic mobility across generations.

CAMBA will pilot a new evidence-based curriculum, Circle of Security, within their "Ready, Set, Go" initiative in their family shelters. Circles of Security sessions provide education on key topics to parents living in the shelter while allowing parents and children to socialize and bond with one another to foster community belonging, family wellbeing, and parent-child connections.

Chinese-American Planning Council will expand their work to empower multi-generational families–with a particular emphasis on newcomers–by creating shared experiences that focus on education, connection, sense of self and community.

Educational Alliance will create a social work internship program based out of their Family Resource Center to support asylum-seeking families and other underserved families. The interns will seek to improve family stability, self-efficacy, mental health and social capital while building a pipeline of talented and mission-aligned social workers dedicated to child and family work.

Goddard Riverside will expand their Whole Family Project, neighborhood-based service hubs for families in public and affordable housing. The Project helps to foster economic and social mobility with a Family Advocate Mentor who works with families one-on-one.

Henry Street Settlement will provide comprehensive case management, resource-connections, and holistic family supports for immigrant parents in their adult ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) programs, and their children through their Learning Together program. The program intends to increase academics, social-emotional wellbeing, mental health, and family togetherness as well as job readiness.

Jacob A. Riis Neighborhood Settlement will focus on family literacy for immigrant families and families who live in NYCHA housing and have children in PreK–second grade. Building literacy will increase student readiness for school motivation and academic outcomes, and child-directed reading while supporting parent literacy.

Korean Community Services will take a whole-family approach to addressing families’ social and emotional needs, including art therapy, family excursions, and opportunities to debrief and reflect with a family therapist. The goal of this initiative is to decrease markers of anxiety and depression and allow families to support each others’ mental health.

Queens Community House will provide support and training for parents of and caregivers to children with developmental delays, providing enhanced knowledge and resource access to maximize developmental outcomes and better navigate special education systems.

WHEDco will run an ESOL (English to Speakers of Other Languages) Family Literacy program for immigrant families with young children. The goal of this work is to motivate children and their parents to improve their English-language proficiency and literacy skills together so families can better navigate school, work, and neighborhood life.

UNH will work with this cohort of settlement houses to develop appropriate metrics to document the impact of these programs on the wellbeing of children and families, aggregate the data we collect, and combine settlement house information with research and analysis to advocate for replication of these innovative models with both public and private funds.