Working in a Number of School Districts

I often write about our work in the Providence public schools, but did you know Family Service of RI is providing various human services in partnership with other school districts?  Our work helps students and their families overcome barriers to attendance, staying in school, and academic success.

In addition to Providence schools, we're also in the Central Falls, Exeter-West Greenwich and Westerly schools. And recently we started working in partnership with St. Patrick Academy in Providence.

And how could I forget--we have a school ourselves called Mount Pleasant Academy.

So the start of the school year is a very special time of year here.

Learn more by perusing our Directory of Services.

--Stephen L. Hug

Welcome Back to Fogarty!

Our Providence Children's Initiative team is at Fogarty Elementary today welcoming  students & parents back, and letting them know about the Walking School Bus and more.

As you may know the Providence Children's Initiative has been a leader in addressing absentee and tardiness issues.

Check out this recent Providence Journal story.

Is summer really over?

--Stephen L. Hug

Back to School!

It's starting to get exciting!

Back to school time!

Our friends at GoLocalProv have put together a handy checklist of stuff to track down if you have a young one heading to class.

And JC Penney has free haircuts for K-6.  Check it out here.

--Stephen L. Hug

Saluting Commissioner Gist

Photo by Frank Curran

Haven't updated the blog for a little while because I've been working on our upcoming Brighter Futures luncheon, which this year honors Rhode Island Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education Deborah A. Gist.

It starts at noon on Tuesday, October 2, which really isn't that far away, as the summer, I'm sorry to say, begins slipping away!  But late summer, early fall is a great time in New England!  Something to look forward to.

The Brighter Futures award luncheon started back in 2005 as a way to recognize people and organizations helping to build Brighter Futures for Rhode Island's children.  It's also an important fundraiser for us, too. Past recipients include the PawSox and the Boston Red Sox, Senator Jack Reed, and Geoffrey Canada of the Harlem Children's Zone, an important inspiration for our work in South Providence.

Read more about the event here.  Hope you can join us!

And hope you get outside before the summer passes!

--Stephen L. Hug

Collaborating, on the Farm, to Improve Life for Children

Family Service of RI has an outstanding program called "Early Intervention," which helps very young children experiencing delays in one or more areas of development.

Recently, our Early Intervention team partnered with our friends at the Southside Community Land Trust and their City Farm to help children improve their communications skills and experience a farm setting.

All chronicled in a lovely story called "Future Farmers Get a Kick Out of City Farm" by Eco RI News.


--Stephen L. Hug

Walking School Bus Creating Buzzzz

It was really great to hear all of the positive comments about the Walking School Bus program launched by the Providence Children's Initiative, a program of Family Service of RI.

Here's a TV report put together by a new reporter in our area.

He's Andrew Adamson from WPRI and he did a particularly good job capturing the Walking School bus concept.

Wish I could embed in this blog post, but Blogger's not letting me. So here's a link.  Please check it out.

--Stephen L. Hug

Have You Heard of a Walking School Bus?

Family Service of RI's Providence Children's Initiative program introduced their school attendance map and the "walking" school bus today.  A walking what?

It's all about promoting school attendance.

To learn you have to show up!  It's fundamental.

Read more here.

Looking for a Great Cause? Walk to Fight HIV/AIDS!

Sunday, September 23 will see hundreds of dedicated walkers on the Rhode Island State House lawn walking to fight HIV/AIDS.

Will you join them?  Will you form a team of family and friends?

Help a great cause, AIDS Project RI, which is a division of Family Service of RI.

Take the first step by clicking here for more information.

Rhode Island KIDS COUNT Reports on Children in Immigrant Families

Rhode Island KIDS COUNT is a terrific resource for child welfare information.

Recently they did an "issue brief" on children in the state's immigrant families, a report which received a lot of media coverage.

Read it yourself right here.

We salute our friends at RI KIDS COUNT and thank them for the important work they're doing!

--Stephen L. Hug