FRCS Family Service Centre (FRCS FSC) has been supporting individuals and families facing with wide-ranging issues from financial to housing to parenting, marital and eldercare, in Clementi and West Coast since 1997.
We know how challenging and difficult it can be to raise children with limited resources and time. Parent-Child Link (PCL) is a ground-up initiative by FRCS FSC to support families from the very beginning, when their children are from 0 to 6 years old . We want to help these families beat the odds by providing a better future for their children, one that will be as bright as any other. Under our PCL initiative, we have offered these following programmes to cater to the specific needs of parents/caregivers and their children according to their age groups:
1. Baby Steps Programme (0 to 2 years old)
Baby Steps is a comprehensive programme that supports parents/caregivers from the birth of their child till the child reaches 2 years old, through parent/caregiver-child bonding activities and parenting workshops.
Our goal is to nurture and enhance relationships between parents/caregivers and their child and facilitate the parent/caregiver’s understanding of their child’s early years development.
At Baby Steps, we recognise that the journey of caring for a newborn can never be totally smooth sailing. We hope to journey with the parents/caregivers to better cope with their new experiences and embark on a smoother transition to parenthood.
Baby Steps Programme activities are conducted by our trained volunteers at least once a month in the parents/caregivers’ homes.
2. ParentChild+ Programme (2 to 4 years old)
Originating from the United States (USA), ParentChild+ is an evidence-based early literacy, school readiness, parental support, and home visiting programme for multi-stressed and low-income families with young children from aged 2 up to 4 years old. FRCS FSC has been committed to be the programme’s only site in Singapore since May 2019.
This programme aims to foster a more effective, positive, healthy and quality parent/caregiver-child interactions through using tools such as books and toys to stimulate the child’s cognitive functions. All books and toys are given to the families for free.
In the journey of a child’s growth, it is recognised that his/her parents/caregivers play an important role towards his/her developmental needs. As part of our case management intervention, ParentChild+ focuses on giving the opportunity for parents/caregivers to spend at least half an hour, twice a week focusing solely on interacting positively with the child. These visits will be conducted twice a week by our team of trained social workers as ParentChild+ coordinators and volunteer early learning specialists (ELS), who will observe and assist parent/caregiver-child interactions at home.
The team is committed to support the parents/caregivers and their child through their crucial growing up years. Participants of this programme will then join the Books & Bond Programme from 4 years old till before their child enters primary school.
3. Books & Bond Programme (4 to 6 years old)
As part of the PCL holistic journey of a child’s crucial early developmental years, we have curated a home-based reading programme for children aged 4 to 6 years old.
Called Books & Bond Programme (B&B), our trained volunteers will visit families at their home at least weekly with books to encourage parents/caregivers reading to their child and forge thus closer bonds through reading together. B&B recognises that parent/caregiver’s active participation and encouragement of their child’s reading will lead to a long-term positive and beneficial impact on the parent/caregiver-child relationship and instil the child’s lifelong passion for learning.
In all, our PCL initiative aims to create and foster the steppingstones for parents/caregivers and their child to embark on their journey of learning and growing with one another.
Feel free to contact us at 6779 9488 or parentchildlink@frcsfsc.sg for more information on our PCL initiative and its suite of programmes