Brownsville Kids Get Yale Education At The Family Co-op

BROWNSVILLE, NY — Brownsville babies are getting a Yale University education thanks to a new daycare program, launched this fall, that puts the focus on parents' needs and neighborhood pride.

The Family Co-op, a brainchild of partners from the Yale University School of Medicine, Scholastic and local nonprofit United for Brownsville, is a weekly educational program designed around a novel idea: that you should ask parents what they need.

"We really are not coming to teach parents things; we're coming to support families to give their kids the best opportunities possible," said Family Co-op supervisor Pamela Potischman. "To do that is a pretty cool thing, and I've never really seen that happen before this."

Since September, roughly 30 kids aged from infancy to three years old have been gathering for two-hour sessions at Morris Koppelman Early Childhood Center and the Greg Jackson Center for Brownsville, where they read books, eat snacks, learn about, and celebrate their neighborhood.

Karen Baicker, publisher for Family and Community Engagement at Scholastic, explained building a sense of a supportive community is a big part of the program, which has already seen success in a region as different from Brownsville as it could be: Appalachia.

“The intention was to foster a sense of community, build pride and build a curriculum that came from the community,” said Baicker, noting Yale Child Study Center research connects resilience to social connectedness.

"Our hypothesis going into this was, ‘Could literacy be used to build those social connections that lead to resilience?’"

Local pride became the theme. In Tennessee, like in Brownsville, program organizers began designing a curriculum that celebrated community culture and met the specific needs of local parents.

David Harrington, co-director of United for Brownsville, explained The Family Co-op's programming was developed after months of community outreach and with feedback from Brownsville parents.

"We began this process by going on a listening tour," Harrington said.

"We want to be sure that it has components that are responding to the needs we heard that need to be filled in the community, and are done in a way that is really respectful of the community and done in a way that celebrates it."

What they found out is not surprising: Brownsville parents have different needs than those in more affluent Brooklyn neighborhoods, according to Potischman.

"If you are in brownstone Brooklyn, there are cafes where people are meeting up, people feel safe on the street," Potischman said. "There are more parks that feel safe, there’s access to programs."

Brownsville parents said what they needed most was a space to play with their kids and meet fellow parents on the weekend, according to Potischman and Harrington.

"There’s a sense of danger, there is more violence in Brownsville and that also keeps families wanting to stay inside more," said Potischman. "That contributes to the social isolation."

Yet it is the narrative of Brownsville as a purely dangerous place that The Family Co-Op hopes to battle through its curriculum.

"[Brownsville] tends to pop up in the news only in response to negative stories that really impact the way families view the community," Harrington said. "They feel stigmatized."

Which is why family ambassadors, Brownsville residents who work with United for Brownsville and the co-op's Family Advisory Board, help select which books get read and what field trips the kids take.

“We’re hoping to redefine the negative narratives that are often conveyed about Brownsville," said Baicker. "We hope that families discover and celebrate what Brownsville has to offer."

The co-op — funded by the Robin Hood Foundation — is one of three projects United for Brownsville has taken on in an initiative called Discover Together Brownsville, which also includes Books for Brownsville and Learning Landscapes.

It will run from September through June, and has already gotten some positive feedback.

“I think the parents were very excited to see each other and have a place to share and be with their young children,” said Potischman.

"I felt like the parents are excited the this is happening, and they were excited to be there."