About Heights Parent Center - Our History

History

Two educators, Carolyn Grossman and Barbara Soules, conceived of the Center in 1978 when they recognized that parents needed help to understand the importance of nurturing their young children in a supportive environment to help them be ready for school.

Soules, a learning disabilities teacher at Taylor Elementary in the CH-UH School District, and Grossman, an early childhood educator, also at Taylor, were inspired by Dr. Burton White's study of Head Start. Dr. White concluded that paying attention to a child's learning when he enters kindergarten is too late.

A child's development from birth to three years is crucial. Parents needed coaching on how to promote learning by interacting with their children, and children need to be screened early for conditions that could be a barrier to learning, such as seeing or hearing problems.

Later that year, under the auspices of Your Schools, a parent-led educational organization, Grossman and Soules formed a group to study the need for a parent center. Parent interviews and a survey of parent resource organizations clearly indicated a need for comprehensive, year round access to child development information and peer support.

The proposal to create Heights Parent Center laid out specific means to "influence in a positive way the intellectual development and school performance of children." HPC would provide parents with information on child development and child rearing techniques. It would screen infants to detect potential barriers to learning. It would provide a physical location where parents of young children could meet, share experiences and access resources. And, it would promote clear and comfortable communication between parents, children and teachers.

The CH-UH School District has shown strong support over the years by providing space, maintenance and utilities for the Center.

In 1993 HPC joined the national organization, Family Support America. Their operating principles guide the Center's work.

In 2003, HPC joined Shaker Family Center & the City of Lakewood Family Room to form the Greater Cleveland Family Support Consortium. The purpose of the Consortium is to promote and coordinate family support initiatives that strengthen families and build communities.

By 2000, the Center was eager to reach more families than those who found their way to our building.  The Caledonia Neighborhood Family Resource Program, serving a neighborhood on the border of Cleveland Heights and East Cleveland, became the Center's first off-site program.  Housed at a local church, HPC ran an after-school program and hosted a Family Night Out.

In 2003 Little Heights, an interactive family literacy playroom for parents and children aged 2 to 5, was developed in partnership with CH-UH Main Library. While playing with their children, parents and caregivers learn how they can stimulate the building of key literacy skills the children will need to be ready for school.

A portable family literacy program featuring prop boxes called Play-a-Day was launched in 2003.  First geared toward groups of families who came to the Center, the program has evolved and grown.  In 2006 Play-a-Day was re-imagined as a school-based program in partnership with Oxford Elementary school.  The program has now grown into the Family-School Connection, currently located in three local schools.  Heights Parent Center Family Liaisons work out of the school to connect with families of incoming kindergarteners.  They focus on facilitating an effective transition into school, on helping parents to become involved with the school and especially on engaging parents in their children’s education.  

HPC also began an Even Start comprehensive family literacy program in 2003.  When the federal Even Start funding dried up in 2007, a grant from the Cuyahoga Board of County Commissioners, through the Literacy Cooperative of Greater Cleveland, enabled the creation of Families Learning Together.  FLT is a network of literacy providers anchored by HPC who together provide the key elements of a comprehensive family literacy program: adult basic education (GED), early childhood education, parenting education, interactive literacy (parent & child time together) which are supplemented by home visits and referral to community resources.  TANF-eligible (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families) families across Cuyahoga County are eligible.

As we move toward thirty years of service to families of young children, the Center is excited to be reaching out widely into the community, offering programs at multiple sites, and establishing new collaborations with programming partners.