Baby Buggy has continued to serve the 60 families and 119 children at the St. Anthony’s Head Start Family Resource Center (FRC) by distributing quarterly donations of essential gear, baby products and clothing, as well as donations of diapers and wipes – keeping in line with Baby Buggy’s mission of providing families in need with the necessary baby items and resources to ensure the safety and overall well-being of their children.

Baby Buggy is proud of the wonderful resources and services that have been provided to the families at the FRC:

•   Over 60,650 items have been donated to the families at the Family Resource Center, ranging from cribs and strollers to clothing and diapers;

•   Baby Buggy held a Speaker Series with representatives from various social service agencies to address the needs of client families that were identified during last summer’s Financial Literacy Workshop; participants met with representatives offering services related to legal assistance, formal banking services and advanced financial assistance, as well as assistance with housing and landlord issues;

•   Baby Buggy is currently offering the third Credit Where Credit Is Due (CWCID) workshop cycle to the families at the FRC; CWCID promotes economic empowerment among low-income families by increasing access to, understanding of, and control over financial services. The topics covered include personal finance, financial goals, budgeting and savings, understanding the credit system, financial institutions and financial services, and an overview of taxes and investments;

•   A Benefits Analysis session was also offered to the FRC families; a group of trained Credit Suisse volunteers interviewed families using the self-sufficiency calculator to determine their eligibility for work supports, tax credits & other benefits, as well as how to access them. Our belief is that this will help improve the self-sufficiency and stability of these families;

•   In response to the current food crisis, Baby Buggy launched a Healthy Food and Nutrition Initiative in November 2008 geared toward providing FRC families with another essential – affordable, healthy and nutritious food! Through the City Harvest/FreshDirect Buying Club, Baby Buggy has given FRC families access to high quality food and grocery items at discounted prices that can be purchased with food stamps, cash, or debit cards; as an incentive, Baby Buggy provides these families with free, monthly supplements of $30 in healthy take-home groceries to match purchases of $30 or more made by families through the Buying Club. Since November 2008, Baby Buggy has distributed 120 grocery supplements to FRC client families;

The following is an anecdote from Sister Mary Thomassino, Deputy Director of Education for the Archdiocese Head Start Programs:

"On behalf of the Head Start Parents and staff at St. Anthony Head Start Program, I wish to thank you and all those connected to Baby Buggy for your generosity to us.

Our families have received beautiful gifts that will provide for safe and better care of the children. They are expanding their food budget and learning how to save money and use those dollars wisely. We look forward to continuing this relationship."

Baby Buggy’s official start date for the Family Resource Center at St. Anthony’s Head Start was May 1, 2008. Since then, Baby Buggy has helped a total of 60 families and 119 children! Baby Buggy donations included critical gear and clothing, as well as monthly donations of diapers and wipes for all families.

Baby Buggy also offered a five-week financial literacy workshop series. The purpose of this workshop was to help families learn more about budgeting and finances, with the overall goal of improving the families’ financial stability. Baby Buggy is extremely pleased with what we have accomplished through the implementation of this program:

•   Organized a training session for Credit Suisse volunteers so they can facilitate the culturally sensitive financial literacy workshop series
•   All 15 families that participated in the program graduated from the financial literacy workshop series, which focused on the following topics: budgeting, saving, debt reduction, credit repair, how to decipher a credit report, and identifying available benefits and resources
•   Baby Buggy provided dinner and child care for all participants to make the experience more comfortable and convenient for them

During the course of this workshop series, the families inquired about other topics such as legal assistance, advanced financial assistance, complete benefits analysis, help with housing and landlord issues, accessing federal student loans, as well as information about various education and certification programs. Baby Buggy turned to many of the Community-based Organizations in our network to provide information about referrals and resources available to families. Baby Buggy will organize a Speaker Series for all St. Anthony’s families to address these topics of interest; this will keep the momentum going with the program graduates, help us recruit a new set of families to enroll in the next workshop series, as well as ensure that we are meeting the diverse needs of these families. We strive to continue to improve the families’ quality of life, as well as their financial and overall stability.

The following are anecdotes from staff, participants, and a volunteer, which demonstrate that this program was beneficial to all who were involved with this project:

“Baby Buggy not only gives material goods to families, but also provides emotional support and guidance for the whole family helping them achieve their life goals”. – St. Anthony’s Education Director

“I really feel the workshop was helpful. I had a lot of questions that were answered. Everyone was friendly – this also helped me open up to them freely. Thank you very much. You should definitely offer more workshops concerning financial needs”. – Workshop Participant

“The Baby Buggy Financial Workshop was a very helpful program offered to St. Anthony’s. It made me understand how to make a budget plan and realize that with a budget I would be able to see where my money was going or coming and how to control it better. They also informed me of how important it is to obtain a credit report and that it should be done on a yearly basis. I really enjoyed attending the workshops and I hope that St. Anthony’s continues to offer these workshops in the future”. – Workshop Participant

“Thank you for creating the opportunity to give back. The experience was very humbling and gratifying - I truly enjoyed it! I could tell it was truly needed based on the participants' comments”. – Credit Suisse Volunteer

Baby Buggy has been serving St. Anthony’s Head Start program since April 2006; since then, we have distributed nearly 20,000 baby items and gear to families at St. Anthony’s - valued at almost $150,000.

Recently, the Director at St. Anthony’s asked an expectant mother of three enrolled in the program to briefly describe her thoughts about Baby Buggy resources. She shared that although her husband works, they struggle to obtain the essentials they need. She was very worried about whether they would be able to acquire all of the necessities to take care of their new baby. After receiving essential gear, clothing, books, bath products, as well as clothing and shoes for her other children, she said that Baby Buggy was the answer to her prayers. “God is good and his blessings sometimes come through good and kind hearted people you don’t even know,” she said, “Thank you, thank you, Baby Buggy.”

Through funding for the Family Resource Center, we plan to provide 60 families at St. Anthony’s with 4-6 Baby Buggy donations a year. These donations will consist of essential baby items and gear, clothing, books, and many other baby products to help provide families with all of the baby items that are needed to help with the safety and well-being of their young children.

In preparing for our May 1st start date, we have made the following strides towards offering families regular Baby Buggy resources, financial education workshops, and benefits analysis in order to empower families so they can help themselves to improve their financial and overall stress:

•   Sixty families have been identified to participate – these families will begin receiving Baby Buggy donations on May 1st;

•   Family Workers from St. Anthony’s were sent to a training session on how to use the self-sufficiency calculator, which will give them the ability to determine which benefits the families are eligible to receive;

•   The financial literacy curriculum for financial education workshops has been selected;

•   We have secured a facilitator to train volunteers to facilitate culturally sensitive financial education workshops and individual financial sessions with families;

•   Recruitment of volunteers to facilitate the financial education workshops with families is currently underway;

•   There have been two on-site volunteer events in which families participated by patching and repairing clothing. This allowed families to bond and strengthen ties; the clothing was then distributed to families within the community.