Family Focus Hanging On, Hopeful

By Desiree Parker Tuesday, January 05, 2010

An infant stimulus class in session at Family Focus.

Back in preschool classrooms and playgroups this week after a holiday break, a handful of teachers and leaders are working without pay to keep the programs running while awaiting word on a potential new community partner.

After being told this fall by the embattled Colonial Community Services Board it would lose funding come December 31, Family Focus continued its popular preschool and playgroup programs amid a scramble to get other sources of funding. Family Focus employees and supporters turned to the community for help, but by the end of 2009 had raised just $10,000 of the $175,000 they needed to run programs.

Locals worried this would mean the end of a program that has served thousands of families on the Peninsula since 1983. On Monday, Program Manager Sheree Press told WYDaily that the organization would not close, but is currently negotiating with another organization, which will likely act as fiscal agent as soon as the details are ironed out.

“The community has been so good to us,” Press says. “People have really been working to help raise money” to keep Family Focus.

Both the Williamsburg and Grafton Family Focus programs managed to secure free rent from the churches that house them; York River Baptist Church in Toano will offer its location rent-free until June, and St. Mark Lutheran Church in Yorktown will offer its location rent-free for a year, according to Press. “We’re so grateful,” she says.

Thanks to fundraising, a reprieve in rent and the possibility of a new fiscal agent, the organization will continue to offer both its preschool and playgroup programs, with fewer staff, starting this week.

While Press says the group can’t afford to bring all 12 staff members back, five will be returning. Right now, she says, folks are working on a volunteer basis until the future of the program is certain. Some of the funding from sources outside the CSB has been withdrawn recently, but much of it will continue. Between grants and the support of a new fiscal agent, the program looks like it will have a bright future, Press thinks.

The CSB has allowed Family Focus to keep its computers, and will allow the group to keep phone service and email until everything is switched over, according to Press, but otherwise the ties are now severed. The organization’s new Web site is up and running already.

“Right now, we’re looking to the future and hoping for the best,” says Press.

The Grafton preschool program is full, but the Williamsburg program has openings for local children. The preschool hours are Wednesdays and Fridays from 9:30 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. Playgroups are Mondays and Thursdays from 9:30 a.m. until noon. Grafton preschool is on Fridays, and their playgroups are Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays.

Press says the preschool program is great as a stepping stone for kids who aren’t ready for full-time preschool. Parents can stay in the building, and the curriculum is based on the same program that WJCC schools use, she says.

“The program is so affordable,” she says, “and the teachers are wonderful. They’ve taught together for years, and they give lots of tender, loving care to the kids.”

Look here to get more information about Family Focus preschool and playgroup programs.