CARA House
Total Served: 327 children 492 adults 171 families
The CARA House, founded in 1997, is a community-based, collaborative, therapeutic parenting education center in Ward 7 of the District of Columbia that helps families avoid unnecessary involvement in the District’s child welfare system, and family permanency, child safety and well-being. Our staff provides concrete, basic resources and raises community standards for parenting. Its KinNet and Nurturing Parent Program support relatives and neighbors in assisting vulnerable families at risk of being separated from their children.
Program Components:
- Resource Exchange Program (REP) – assists families with emergency needs, i.e., clothing, food, household items, cribs, strollers, formula, baby food, and school supplies. All goods and in-kind donations come from the community.
- Individual and Group Parenting Education Classes – a full-time Parent Educator works with families individually as well as facilitates the Nurturing Parent Program.
- Community Parent Advocates and Mentors – are trained to promote effective parenting behaviors. These community volunteers also disseminate appropriate and culturally-relevant parenting and family service information, verbally and through literature, to adults and children.
- Men-In-Motion, Fathers’ Program – assists fathers in exploring and clarifying the importance of emotional support and role modeling responsible adult parent behavior, in support of healthy child development.
- The Family Connections Program (FCP), in partnership with the District of Columbia Department of Human Services’ Income Maintenance Administration, provides family mentoring and social services to low income families, by connecting them to strong, healthy families in the community who are economically stable and demonstrate positive parenting skills. These families serve as mentors to low-income families in need. Through FCP these families are able to transition from dependency on the welfare system.
- KinNet Program- provides a support group that meets twice a month to address the diverse needs of relative caregivers (great grandparents, grandparents, aunts and uncles). Participants include both formal relative caregivers and informal relative caregivers. The goals for the support groups include role modeling group facilitation to the participants and nurturing their natural leadership skills. Throughout the year, group members go on outings and guest speakers join the group to facilitate special topics identified by group members.
- Nurturing Parent Program -provides both individual and group parenting education. A full-time Parent Educator works with families individually and facilitates a 9-week parenting education class to reinforce parental strengths, provide information on child development and effective approaches to supporting and disciplining children, create parent peer supports and opportunities, and identify threats and assaults on healthy child development, including critical and specific preventive strategies for sexual, physical, and emotional abuse and neglect.
Other Services:
- Conflict resolution skills
- Therapeutic family camp
- Employment and computer skills training
- Child advocacy
- Community referrals
- Mentoring and tutoring
- Child and family recreational activities
- Support groups
- Family and individual therapy
- Psychological and social assessments
- Job readiness services
- Youth leadership initiatives
- Rites of Passage (Girls/Boys)
- Parenting education and support
- Re-entry services
- Case management
- Summer camp
For more information, please contact Michelle Wilson, Division Mananger of Community-Based Services at (202) 396-9330, ext. 11 or mdwilson0225@aol.com
