Mainspring Schools

PROVIDE CHILD CARE SERVICES TO LOW INCOME FAMILIES.

For every child, a foundation to thrive.

Goal One: Improve current outcomes through high-quality operations and programming while maintaining the maximum number of students.

Goal Two: Double the number of students and families served.

Goal Three: Improve early childhood education and 2-Gen impact beyond Mainspring.

Mainspring Schools conducts at least three staff training days annually. All teachers maintain certifications as required by state licensing agencies. Mainspring also sets aside funding for staff professional development, conferences, and educational opportunities and collaborates with community partners and funders to ensure teachers have access to resources including scholarship dollars for those seeking higher education in the field of early childhood education.

Mainspring's services pivoted in March 2020 to provide family-centric support as the initial wave of COVID hit. While we implemented remote education for children via Zoom, much of our efforts went to helping our families put food on the table, pay bills, manage mental health and stress, and find community resources. That effort remained front and center throughout 2020 as we reopened the school in September. While our program has now returned to in-person work with our children, we continue to focus on the basic needs of our families given the lingering impact of the pandemic. Mainspring looks and feels different these days. All adults are wearing masks, no parents/caregivers are entering the building, family support services are held on Zoom, and any sign of symptoms requires children or staff to go home immediately. The pandemic has been enormously stressful for teachers, who are on high alert for potential illness while managing classrooms without supplementary support (e.g., non-staff volunteers). Classrooms are organized as pods by age, and when there is a pod closure, families are left without child care and children without routine. Staff respond with nuance to each situation. We are committed to supporting every child, parent/caregiver, and family unit. We send home extra food, clothes, books, toys & games, diapers, and hygiene supplies from our community pantry and “sidewalk shop” of donated items. Our family services team stays in close touch with each parent and caregiver to understand the barriers they face and collaboratively build toward a solution. If barriers experienced by a family are outside the scope of what we can do at Mainspring, we draw on relationships with partners to provide referrals and resources targeted to the unique situation. The acute responsiveness and adaptability that we have implemented during COVID will permanently inform our program model, and we strive to lead the community by example as a result of this ongoing experience.