Strong Foundations for Young Children

Strong Foundations for Young Children provides free coaching, modeling, and support to families with infants and young children who are struggling with challenging behavior and delayed social emotional development.

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What is SFYC?

Strong Foundations for Young Children (SFYC) provides free support for families of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers who reside in Hampshire or Franklin County, MA. Our goal is to provide support to parents to enhance their children’s social and emotional development.

Who is eligible?

Families that are eligible for services:

Must reside in Hampshire or Franklin County.
Have at least one child, age birth to five (or before kindergarten).
The eligible child must have challenging behaviors, delayed social emotional skills or other high needs.
Priority is given to children not currently enrolled in childcare.

Priority will go to families that are not yet connected to community services and have a child with high needs. The program duration is typically 3-6 months (or less, depending on the needs of the family).

What is the cost?

There are no costs to the family and no insurance requirements. This program provides FREE coaching to families in Franklin and Hampshire counties with children birth to five.

What is included?

The type and quantity of services are tailored to the individual needs of each child and family. We will typically visit the family at home and provide help with setting goals, coaching and modeling strategies for parents or caregivers, and connecting families with needed resources in the community. The family and clinician will work together to determine appropriate goals for the family to support the social emotional development of the child, reducing challenging behaviors.

Click here to access the SFYC Online Referral Form

When you have a child who struggles it is a huge challenge as parents, especially during a pandemic! The Strong Foundations program was an incredible resource during this time to help us meet our child’s needs and assess what we, ourselves, were needing to do in order to be the best parents we could be for them. The strategies were practical, helpful, and just having someone to talk to about everything going on made the load seem lighter.

— an SFYC parent

Vanessa Pashkoff

Vanessa Pashkoff is the Early Childhood Mental Health Programs Coordinator at CES. Vanessa has over fifteen years of experience in the field of Early Childhood Education. Vanessa is a teacher – learner, family partner, and advocate for young children. She is committed to anti-bias education, social emotional development, and learning through play. In addition to her work in the classroom, Vanessa has spent recent years as an Instructional Coach in Springfield, MA and Early Childhood Trainer and Consultant. While Vanessa was born and raised in Toronto, Canada, she currently lives in Western MA with her partner, two children, and two cats, Midnight and Olive.

Position: Early Childhood Mental Health Program Coordinator

Email: vpashkoff@collaborative.org