The South Shore YMCA, celebrating its 127th year of service to the South Shore, is proud to announce that it is the recipient of a $70,000 grant from the office of Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey to conduct professional development instruction for more than 100 Quincy-based early education teachers over the next two years. The South Shore YMCA welcomes hundreds of early education students daily to its classrooms at the State Street Early Learning Center at the Quincy Y and the Early Learning Center in North Quincy.
Partnering with Aspire Health Alliance, the Y will provide three modules of training for teachers, focusing on understanding trauma in the classroom, using developmental repair coaching with young children who have experienced trauma, and maximizing classroom routine and design layout to foster resilience, relaxation, emotion regulation and coping skills. Furthermore, Aspire will provide training for parents on understanding trauma in children, building trauma sensitive homes, trauma sensitive discipline and more.
“We are always looking for new ways to strengthen our early education teachers through professional development,” said Paul Gorman, President and CEO of the South Shore YMCA. “This opportunity through the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office allowed us to think deeply about the important topic of how to foster the growth of children who have experienced trauma. Our partnership with Aspire Health Alliance will allow us to directly confront this major societal issue and help build resilience in a generation of South Shore children.”
”We are grateful and honored to be partnering in this important statewide initiative,” said Antony Sheehan, President and CEO of Aspire Health Alliance. “The chance to work with Paul and his great team at SSYMCA to create supportive systems for children who have experienced trauma is an amazing opportunity.”
“Young children who have experienced trauma need special support from childcare and early education providers,” said AG Healey. “We are pleased to help meet the growing need for training to support trauma-informed care for our youngest learners.”
For more information about the South Shore YMCA’s early education programs, please contact Laureen Browning, Vice President of Youth Development, at 781-826-7910 or lbrowning@ssymca.org.
The South Shore YMCA is a charity serving twelve local communities: Quincy, Randolph, Weymouth, Braintree, Milton, Holbrook, Hingham, Hull, Cohasset, Scituate, Norwell and Hanover. For information on how to support its work through volunteering or donations, contact Mary Orne at morne@ssymca.org or 781-264-9400 ext. 3306. Financial Assistance is a Y community benefit available to all families in need, applicable to all Y programs and services.
Aspire Health Alliance provides a wide array of counseling and evaluation services to children and their families. Services are offered at a variety of locations throughout Boston, the South Shore and Southeastern Massachusetts. For information about how to support Aspire’s work, please contact Janice Sullivan, Executive Director Business and Community Relations at 617-378-1049 or JaSulliv@ssmh.org.