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Key Services

Children’s Relief Nursery “improves the family’s condition so all family members can achieve their true potential.”
— Kim Thomas, program officer, Meyer Memorial Trust

The key to our success is on our emphasis on secure, safe, and stable parent-child relationships.

We provide a range of services that “wrap-around” the family to reduce parental stress and social isolation.  We’re teaching parenting skills, strengthening bonds between parents and their babies, providing targeted services, reducing child behavioral problems and improving social-emotional development in very young children.

We believe that by focusing on the social and emotional well-being of the youngest, most vulnerable children, we can strengthen families. We do this at a time when we can have the greatest impact on their lives, when their children are infants through age 4. Our families get the help they need, when they need it, to overcome their difficulties and emerge stronger — as a family. A failed family becomes a burden on the community. A successful one contributes to it. Together, we are making families stronger.

All CRN families have access to these wrap-around services, free of charge:

Intake

Clinicians assess clients as a family and collaborate with the client on a Family Goals Plan.

• Mental health assessments
• Referrals
• Support

Mental Health

Clinicians provide family counseling and therapy, consult with classroom staff on child social/emotional health and development. Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) is a relationship-based therapeutic intervention which is specifically designed around the needs of very young children and focuses on the attachment between caregiver and child.

• Child-Parent psychotherapy
• Infant and toddler mental health

Therapeutic Classrooms

Social service professionals and volunteers collaborate to create a safe environment where very young at-risk children can participate with peers in therapeutic activities that promote healthy development.

• Safe
• Child-focused
• Nurturing
• Exploratory
• Meeting developmental milestones

Family Connection (Parent Support)

Weekly mentoring groups teach parents the skills they need to have a positive, healthy relationship with their young children even during times of great stress.

• Education
• Mentoring
• Stress management
• Peer support groups

Parent/Infant Classes

Parents bring their infants to meet in small groups with other families to learn parenting skills and build better family relationships. The groups offer peer support and reduce social isolation.

• Camaraderie
• Understanding baby’s cues
• Secure parent-child relationships

Home Visits

Case managers regularly visit families in their homes to help them achieve identified family goals. These parenting professionals provide counseling, referrals to other agencies when appropriate, and ongoing support as families build healthier parent/child relationships.

• Observation
• Coaching
• Safety checks
• Emotional support
• Referrals to other agencies

Traumatic Stress Expertise

Children who have suffered trauma receive special therapy and support through our program. We are a federally designated “0-3 Traumatic Stress Center” and collaborate locally and nationally with other organizations to develop best practices and evidence-based interventions for young children exposed to trauma.

• Trauma-related community trainings
• In-depth clinical child-parent psychotherapy training

Respite Childcare

Parents who need time to take care of personal or family matters can place their young children in scheduled care for several hours a week.

• Playtime
• Self-care
• Animal therapy

Art and Music Therapy

Art and music classes that promote coping skills and healing by giving the child an outlet for emotional expression.

• Sensory activities encouraging development