Ironbound Community Corporation’s Family Outreach Program strengthens families by placing locally-based workers in preschools around the Ironbound to connect parents to needed resources. These “family workers” help boost parents’ involvement with their child’s educational experiences and educate parents on healthy child development.

ICC supervises this city-wide program of 65 workers, including its own staff at the Ironbound Children’s Center preschool and numerous Abbott preschools throughout Newark.

Family workers foster social relationships between parents, identify and address service needs, and serve as a liaison between families and service centers so teachers can focus on educational matters. When a child completes preschool at the Ironbound Children’s Center, for example, our family workers help parents enroll their children in kindergarten – a daunting task to navigate in an overcrowded school system.