HUNTINGTON – On Wednesday morning, a few days before the holidays, a dozen family members dropped off their toddlers in the play room of the Hilltown Family Center at 9 Russell Road, to go upstairs to a workshop on “Feeding the Developing Brain,” given by child development specialist Scott Noyes.
Child development educator Scott Noyes gives a workshop on the brain – food connection to Hilltown families on Wednesday. (Photo by Amy Porter)
Noyes, who drove down from northern Vermont for the workshop, had previously given a six-hour brain development series to Hilltown families. This time, his focus was on the food and brain connection, and how to prepare food for children that benefits brain development. Noyes has worked for thirty years with parents, children and educator. His programs are available on his website at www.EmpoweringPrograms.com.
Kim Savery, is the director of community programs and family support services for the Hilltown Community Health Centers, the overseeing agency for the Hilltown Family Center. She said that families made a point to come and hear Scott, despite the busy pre-holiday activities.
“Scott is incredibly knowledgeable, accessible, warm, open and engaging. We try to have him a few times every year,” Savery said.
Susan LeBarron, Hilltown Family Center coordinator, playing with Elayna Dowd of Middlefield and Noah Monfette of Huntington. (Photo by Amy Porter)
The workshop is part of the Play to Learn group at the center, which offers parenting education while children are given supervised play time. Susan LeBarron, Hilltown Family Center coordinator said other programs include school readiness and a newborn group. The center’s programs are grant-funded, and open to all Hilltown families free of charge.
LeBarron said she first encountered the Hilltown Family Center as a young mother new to the area, who didn’t know anybody. She started attending fifteen years ago when her youngest was three and she was a stay-at-home Mom. Now that child is in college and her youngest of four daughters is in kindergarten. LeBarron came on staff five years ago.
Kim Savery, director of community programs and family support for Hilltown Community Health Centers. (Photo by Amy Porter)
Savery said the Hilltown Family Center reaches out to isolated Hilltown families, providing gas cards and sometimes transportation to its programs. She said the attendance ranges from as few as three families, to as many as twenty during school vacation weeks.
Other programs located out of the center on 9 Russell Road are the Domestic Violence Task Force, the HOPE outreach program, which provides home nursing visits to seniors, Hilltown Social Services, which connects families to available resources, and Health Access and Navigators, helping individuals and families obtain health insurance.
Russell brothers Jimmy and Johnny Wright busy at play in the Hilltown Family Center. (Photo by Amy Porter)
Savery said the bulk of funding for the programs comes from the federally funded Community Development Block Grant (CDBG); funding which may be in jeopardy in the 2017 cycle. Other funders include the Children’s Trust Fund, which supported the Child Brain Development series, as well as state grants, which are also in jeopardy due to possible 9C local aid cuts being deliberated in the state house right now.
The Hilltown Family Center primarily serves the hilltowns, but Savery said they have also had participation from families in Westfield and Easthampton. For more information on programs at the center, go to www.hchcweb.org or follow them at the Hilltown Family Center on Facebook.
