The children are our future, everyone knows that. But how often do we stop to think about the short term and long term impacts that we should be making to enhance the lives of all children living in Buffalo? This morning, I learned about the horrific formations of an invaluable organization – one that sets out to improve the lives of disadvantaged children so that they might live well rounded and productive lives when they are older.
In 1997, Robert Wilson’s wife was murdered by a 15-year old foster child neighbor. The couple had befriended the boy, who had spent his entire life bouncing around to 11 different foster homes. Instead of succumbing to the dark side of the heart wrenching incident, Wilson set about establishing a program called Every Person Influences Children (EPIC) that would help to nurture disadvantaged, neglected, and abused youth. Through insightful beliefs and resolute nurturing, EPIC has managed to become a significant part in the development of thousands of Buffalo’s at-risk youth.
Each holiday season, EPIC hosts an annual Holiday Storytime, where sixteen socially, economically and educationally challenged families (65 children and parents) are treated to seasonal traditions that include food and games. This year, the children built gingerbread houses (sponsored by Explore & More), were provided with winter clothing (collected, cleaned and donated by Colvin Cleaners and Frontier Central High School), and were treated to a special reading of “The Hungry Caterpillar”.
The seasonal Storytime event is part of EPIC’s Storytime Family Literacy Program, which was established in 2006 to help children develop their literary skills in social environments. The program incorporates universally accepted teaching methods, which helps to increase attentions spans through reading and listening skills (among others). Since getting off the ground, the program has made an impact on over 5000 children in WNY. The program has also been established in numerous other communities throughout 16 other states. And offshoot program called Families in Transition has helped parents to combat substance abuse, mental health concerns, domestic violence, and custody issues. Additional programming includes:
- Ready, Set, Parent!– a parent education program focused on newborn health and preparing children for school success that visits parents in the hospital rooms within 48 hours of giving birth.
- Ready, Set, Read– a workshop series that empowers parents to be their children’s first teacher, no matter what their level of reading ability and focuses on developing family literacy.
- Just for Teens– a series that gives teen parents the support they need to stay in school, develop life skills, and become effective and confident parents that occurs within the standard school lunch period.
- Family Engagement– programs that encourage families to become engaged in their children’s education by partnering with schools to help their children succeed.