Unsung Heroes: COZ Ladies make positive difference for local families

By JEN COWART
Posted 1/30/19

By JEN COWART Editor's note: This is the latest installment in an ongoing series that seeks to showcase unsung heroes in Cranston's schools. *** In my 10 years as an education reporter and as a former educator, and in my 19 years as a parent, I have seen

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

Unsung Heroes: COZ Ladies make positive difference for local families

Posted

Editor’s note: This is the latest installment in an ongoing series that seeks to showcase unsung heroes in Cranston’s schools.

***

In my 10 years as an education reporter and as a former educator, and in my 19 years as a parent, I have seen many amazing educators honored with well-deserved pomp and circumstance.

They each will be the first to tell you that they share their honors with their colleagues, that they could not do what they do each day without the support of so many. It is my goal during this school year to shed some much-needed light on those employees working behind the scenes in Cranston schools who may not receive the spotlight, but for whom it is also well deserved.

Although this is the fifth article in this series, it is the first in which my “Unsung Hero” is actually a group of heroes – four women who work tirelessly to help families all across the city through the Cranston Family Center and Child Opportunity Zone, or COZ.

***

Hidden away behind door No. 10 in the back of Gladstone Street Elementary School are four women affectionately known by some as The COZ Ladies. Collectively, they’ve been helping families in Cranston for decades and were recommended to me as possible subjects for my next “Unsung Heroes” feature by my colleague at the Herald, Pam Schiff.

Schiff felt they were deserving of this honor because they help families and children all over the city of Cranston and many people do not even know they’re there.

Schiff is correct. You’d never even know that the Cranston Family Center’s office is there, and yet important work has been going on there in the name of empowering families for more than two decades.

Robin Gervais has been at the center for 20 years. Grace Swinski has been there for 16 years and Lisa Milson for seven years. Their newest team member, Celia Hernandez, has been there for five months, recently hired part-time as a bilingual outreach worker who has had the benefit of participating in the center’s family engagement activities with her own children over the years.

Together, the team serves nine schools, but each coordinator is assigned to their own caseload of schools. Together as a team, the group reaches many more families just through the partnerships they foster in the community and their collective experiences.

Each of the COZ women also brings their own unique experiences to the job. All of them have had children, and even grandchildren, attend Cranston Public Schools.

Gervais has two grown children, Rachel and Joe, and five grandchildren. Swinski has two grown children, Olive and Ivy, while Milson has three grown children, Michaela, Jared and Abby. Hernandez has three school-aged children, Ariana, Alejandro and Alister.

Between them all, they’ve attended Head Start, CCAP, Arlington, Dutemple, Orchard Farms, Garden City, Edgewood Highland, Gladstone, Bain, Park View, Western Hills, Cranston East, Cranston West and the Cranston Transition Academy, and they’ve utilized services available to them throughout their educational journeys.

The Cranston Family Center has always been about engaging and empowering families, right from the start.

“Originally, we were set up under a Child Opportunity Zone (COZ) grant, and there were 22 sites around the state. Then it dropped down to 10,” Swinski said. “We were set up to provide wrap-around services for families and to help with family engagement. We are really a clearinghouse for families in the district. We service the Title I schools because part of the main focus of Title I funding is on family engagement.”

According to Gervais, that means getting families involved in family activities throughout the year. Invitations and announcements for events always go home on blue paper and often by email as well. The events, which are free of charge for families, can include anything from a Super Bowl snack cooking demonstration or Zumba class to a health fair, breakfast meeting or a Parents as Teachers training series. At each event, the children receive a book to take home.

The group estimates that they do anywhere between 50 and 70 events a year collectively. A new event coming up in March at Hugh B. Bain Middle School, called “Breathe and Be,” will focus on mental health. The Cranston Family Center has partnered with the Comprehensive Community Action Program, or CCAP, and the district’s social workers to plan the event.

“It’s an opportunity for parents to find out resources for mental health needs,” Milson said.

In addition to receiving funding through COZ and Title I, the Cranston Family Center also receives a small grant from the Department of Transportation, so another facet of its mission is promoting safety. Its current campaign involves crosswalk safety, reminding people to look up, wait for the driver of the car at the crosswalk to wave, and then cross safely.

With the addition of Hernandez to the team this year, the Family Center has the ability to better communicate with families who require a translator. The center teaches families to advocate for themselves, giving them the information they need and empowering them to get the help they need, when they need it.

“If they need heating assistance, clothing, food, if they’re homeless or being evicted or have just experienced a fire, we can point them in the right direction,” Swinski said. “A lot of people in the district just know to tell people that they can call us. We’re all mothers, and if we don’t know the information right away, we can figure it out.”

The team often receives referrals from the Cranston Police and Fire departments, the superintendent’s office, social workers and school principals. The group offers information and resources regarding CCAP programming, Head Start, special education and other services, and works with community groups and organizations to secure scholarships for zoo camps, swim lessons and other programs.

“We really want to help people be advocates for their children, and to empower them,” Swinski said. “We partner with the YMCA, CCAP, Roger Williams Park Zoo, OneCranston, the Substance Abuse Task Force, the Cranston Public Libraries and Head Start. We also started two years ago partnering with the CPS librarians and with Aramark. As the school librarians clean off their bookshelves at the end of each year, they’ve been sending their books to us. We donate any that we can’t use and we bring the others to the Aramark summer food sites and hand out books to the students. The books are gently used and it costs us nothing. It’s really something we’re proud of and we are keeping the books going by recycling them.”

During the holiday season, COZ is blessed by the generosity of the local community, and the team works tirelessly to assemble food baskets that contain donated food, books, board games, gifts, gift cards, hats, gloves and pajamas. The gift cards allow parents to choose gifts for their children that are in tune with their own interests.

“All we can do is ask,” Gervais said. “The worst they can say is no, and we’ve been told no many times. We just keep looking and asking.”

The team members are grateful to those who help support their work, from the school district’s grounds crew to Maureen Greaves, who started the Cranston Family Center in 1999 and helped to get the program off the ground at that time.

The COZ Ladies all agree that teamwork and the relationships that are formed each day make the Cranston Family Center a success.

“We truly are a team,” Milson said. “We all have our individual schools, but we all pull together and we all work together.”

If you have an Unsung Hero from a Cranston school you would like to see featured, email jenniferlcowart@gmail.com with details.

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here