Adopt a Social Worker Connecticut, CT Mentoring Programs, Abused Children Connecticut

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Covenant to Care: Connecticut Childrens Center

120 Mountain Avenue, Suite 212, Bloomfield, CT 06002 ▪ Phone: 860.243.1806 ▪ FAX: 860.243.0100

More Information about the Adopt a Social Worker Program:

Program Archive News, Stories, Events
Stories from our social workers as they work with families and our outreach volunteer community. Read more >>>

	Catherine Haugh, AASW Program Coordinator, Northern Region		Meral Prewitt, AASW Program Coordinator, Southern Region

Adopt A Social Worker is the largest and oldest of our programs

Faith-based or community organizations agree to a covenant in which they partner with a particular social worker in Connecticut to, as far as is possible, provide for the necessary and special items needed for all of the children in that social worker’s caseload. This augments the provisions of the State, often assuring greater stability in the life of a child.

Other States have successfully copied this distinctive and preventative model but ours remains the most comprehensive and successful.

A Summer to Remember

Two Bridgeport children are enjoying summer camp and recreational activities for the first time ever and looking forward to a new school year thanks to the help of CCC and many friends. A year ago in May, the small family of three (single mom, daughter age 10 and boy age 8) found themselves homeless. The downward spiral began when their husband and father left and provided no monetary support. Although the mom struggled as best she could to keep her brood under a roof, she fell behind in first her utility bills, and ultimately, the rent.

By the time CCC Regional Coordinator Meral Prewitt became involved with the case, both children were experiencing the damaging effects of their unsettled home life. The children suffered from low self-esteem, and the girl had become the target of a pair of bullies who constantly pulled her hair. Her glasses had been taken from her and destroyed; and she had severe orthodontia issues that her mother had no way to address. Her academic performance was poor, and the situation was getting worse.

Working with social workers at The Connection in Bridgeport, Covenant to Care helped coordinate the family's move into an assisted living apartment in Bridgeport.

The people of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Fairfield, Monroe Congregational, and Wilton Congregational and other congregations in the area donated furniture, clothing and school supplies, and even a Christmas tree. First Congregational Church in Stratford graciously provided the funds which enabled both children to experience summer camp for the first time ever. The Stratford chapter of the Connecticut Junior Women's Club assisted with clothes and other items the children needed for camp.

CCC involvement with this family didn't stop there.

Covenant-to-Care coordinator Meral Prewitt tapped further CCC partners and connections: a Stratford optician and orthodontist have generously donated new lenses and frames, as well as total reconstruction and braces to correct the daughter's overbite. Even her experience with the bullies has a happy ending: she's leaving the bullies behind and attending a parochial school. When the child's grades improved, thanks in large part to tutoring she received as a result of intervention, her new school graciously waived tuition. The people of the parish are donating the uniforms and school supplies necessary.

Right now, though, school isn't the first thing on their minds. Besides camp, the children are enjoying activities such as sewing classes, drawing, reading and playing with the basketball and hoop provided by one of Covenant to Care for Children's many donors. A big thank you to Regional Coordinator Meral Prewitt for her efforts in putting all the pieces together, and another to everyone who helped make these children's lives just a little brighter.

AASW SPECIAL PROJECTS

Click on any of the links below for more information. Helping these initiatives helps victims of child abuse and social workers in Connecticut.

Keep Our Children Wrapped in Caring Warmth!
Find out how you can help. . .

Child Coats Needed!

Donate a Coat for a Child!

We want to keep all our kids warm! We want them to stay healthy, be able to learn, and know that there are people in Connecticut that care and are thinking about them.

Our request this year is that if you want to donate children's clothing, when you are out purchasing a winter coat for your child or yourself, you take a moment to purchase one more child’s coat.

Buy 2, donate 1 to CCC

Learn More >>

September 2012 Back to School Project
Volunteer for children! See how you can help!

Covenant to Care for Children's Adopt a Social Worker (AASW) program matches individual religious congregations of any faith tradition with a child protective services social worker in Connecticut. The purpose of the match is to support that social worker and to meet the unmet needs of neglected, severely impoverished, and abused children in the local community. Due to the increasing numbers of children in crisis, many churches and synagogues are needed to help.

Social workers who work with these families voluntarily participate in the Adopt A Social Worker program in order to help people of faith in their outreach volunteer efforts for the needy who live among us.

Most of the needs identified by the adopted social worker can be met through the abundance in the homes of congregation members: the extra blankets and sheets, the outgrown snowsuit, the discarded juvenile furniture, the baby sweater knit by a caring grandmother.