Family Nurturing Center of Massachusetts

CONTACT:

200 Bowdoin Street
Boston, MA 02122
617-474-1143 x233
www.familynurturing.org

Matthew LiPuma, Executive Director

DESCRIPTION:

FNC was founded in 1994, in Boston City Hospital’s Pediatrics Department, by Sharon Shay (Ph.D.). She wanted to reduce family violence and child abuse by creating a system of comprehensive family support that could be replicated citywide and statewide. In 1997 FNC moved to Dorchester, to be more community-driven, where it was incorporated in 1999. It has several distinctive features: it focuses on the individual (child or adult), the family, and the neighborhood, as interacting and interdependent players; it engages everyone as both learner and teacher; it roots itself in each neighborhood so that the community “owns” the program; and it builds a support structure to prevent family violence and abuse before they start. Its style is to develop models for replication elsewhere, and to train local leaders to adapt those models successfully to their own organizations and communities. FNC’s systems approach identifies and cultivates each working element in a healthy family/neighborhood system—e.g., welcoming new babies home, nurturing fathers in childcare and mother-support, helping children to early literacy, and socializing with neighbors around parenting issues. While most of FNC's work is in Boston, its success has led to state-wide replication. It has won numerous awards and played leadership roles in nationally-funded programs. Wouldn’t you enjoy participating in its further successes?

(2004: HUMAN SERVICES: Well-Being)