Marillac St. Vincent works to ensure that every child in our program has the support and services they need as they grow and develop. Because a child’s parents are their first and most important teachers, our Master’s level Social Workers and Family Support Specialist strive to become partners with all of our families and assist them in accessing the resources that they need to support their child’s academic, emotional and social well-being.

Our Program Highlights Include:

• The Family Support team works in the classroom directly with our Child Development professionals each day.
• We help parents learn new ways to support their child’s social and emotional development through one-on-one coaching, parent groups, and meetings.
• Create individualized child and family goal plans.
• Create behavior plans and interventions with parents and teachers to help children succeed in their classroom environment.
• Provide short-term counseling and play therapy for children.
• Facilitate small group experiences for children to work on social skills.
• Crisis intervention.
• Provide case management services including assistance with employment and connecting families to emergency food and clothing resources.
• Assist parents in navigating the Chicago Public School System and access services for their children.
• Make referrals for services including counseling, Parent-Child Interaction Therapy, Early Intervention and others.
• Coordinate parent groups based on parents interests such as positive discipline, family stress and budgeting.
• Work with families, teachers and child care staff to help students adjust to their classroom environment and thrive in our program.

Our Family Support team Utilizes the Baby TALK (Teaching Activities for Learning and Knowledge) model in our Birth to Three program. The model is a relationship-based approach to working with families through early learning concepts and offers age-specific action steps for the child’s teachers and parents.