About Us

Strengthening Families

We are the Vermont Parent Child Center Network, originally created by four innovative thinking Parent Child Center leaders in 1986, and then delegated by Vermont State Statute in 1988 to become the current fifteen legislatively designed centers that now serve children and families throughout all of Vermont.

Individually, we are fifteen (15) independent, locally based nonprofit organizations, each providing a wide range of supports and services for parents and caregivers with young children. We are unique in design and responsive to the specific needs of our local communities. United, we are the Vermont Parent Child Center Network serving ALL of Vermont with a shared vision, philosophy, and purpose through the delivery of our eight (8) Parent Child Center Core Services: Parent Education, Family Support, Home Visits, Early Childhood Services, On-site Concrete Family Supports, Play Groups, Community Development, and Information & Referral.

Our goals are to help all Vermont’s families with young children get off to a healthy start; promote well-being; build on family strengths, and prevent problems, i.e. illiteracy, poor health, welfare dependency, family violence, sexual, physical and emotional abuse, that have proved to be so costly to our society in both human and financial terms.

 

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Leadership

Parent Child Centers offer the opportunity for a public and private sector partnership, both fiscally and ideologically, in providing services and supports that allows both best practice for families and best use of limited resources. By legislative mandate, each Parent Child Center plays a key leadership role in community planning and development. Similarly, the structure of the Parent Child Center Network itself allows for the same partnership on a statewide basis. Program planning and development can take place at the Network level with state and national leadership. State, federal and private foundation initiatives can be implemented across Vermont with assurance not only that services will be high quality, collaborative and family-driven, but also that they will fit seamlessly into already existing systems of service delivery and be respectful of on-going community efforts. The Network works to assure that the Parent Child Center philosophy is represented in all levels of decision-making. New members of the network are additionally paired up with an existing member to support their orientation.

Support

Being a member of the PCC network ensures quality recognition in addition to strength in advocacy for families, policy and services. Membership also ensures leadership opportunities, shared workload and negotiations, funding opportunities, peer support and technical assistance, as well as critical and timely information and updates. The Peer review process serves as the main evaluation component of Parent Child Centers offering an opportunity for a center to showcase their successes and have network, state and community stakeholders assist in the development of continuous quality improvement.

Collaboration

Vermont's Parent Child Center Network (VPCCN) is recognized in Vermont and nationally as an engine of collaboration and innovation. Across the network itself, throughout VT State government and nationally, Vermont's Parent Child Centers (PCCs) are laboratories for new ideas for improving services to young families, children and youth. Successful innovations to date include pregnancy prevention, school-based services, cultural sensitivity, family specialists embedded in Pediatric practices statewide, robust perinatal support programming, the creation and replication of state of the art therapeutic child care, and Families Learning Together, a holistic, multigenerational program of support for children and their families. PCCs are effective as collaborators with the families they serve and with other family-serving providers, whether they are in State Government, the Health Care System, schools or extended families.

Leadership

Parent Child Centers offer the opportunity for a public and private sector partnership, both fiscally and ideologically, in providing services and supports that allows both best practice for families and best use of limited resources. By legislative mandate, each Parent Child Center plays a key leadership role in community planning and development. Similarly, the structure of the Parent Child Center Network itself allows for the same partnership on a statewide basis. Program planning and development can take place at the Network level with state and national leadership. State, federal and private foundation initiatives can be implemented across Vermont with assurance not only that services will be high quality, collaborative and family-driven, but also that they will fit seamlessly into already existing systems of service delivery and be respectful of on-going community efforts. The Network works to assure that the Parent Child Center philosophy is represented in all levels of decision-making. New members of the network are additionally paired up with an existing member to support their orientation.

Support

Being a member of the PCC network ensures quality recognition in addition to strength in advocacy for families, policy and services. Membership also ensures leadership opportunities, shared workload and negotiations, funding opportunities, peer support and technical assistance, as well as critical and timely information and updates. The Peer review process serves as the main evaluation component of Parent Child Centers offering an opportunity for a center to showcase their successes and have network, stake and community stakeholders assist in the development of continuous quality improvement.

Collaboration

Vermont's Parent Child Center Network (VPCCN) is recognized in Vermont and nationally as an engine of collaboration and innovation. Across the network itself, throughout VT State government and nationally, Vermont's Parent Child Centers (PCCs) are laboratories for new ideas for improving services to young families, children and youth. Successful innovations to date include pregnancy prevention, school-based services, cultural sensitivity, family specialists embedded in Pediatric practices statewide, robust perinatal support programming, the creation and replication of state of the art therapeutic child care, and Families Learning Together, a holistic, multigenerational program of support for children and their families. PCCs are effective as collaborators with the families they serve and with other family-serving providers, whether they are in State Government, the Health Care System, schools or extended families.