COPES Program For Parents And Toddlers

Receives $15,000 Grant

DANBURY — The Fairfield County Community Foundation (FCCF) recently awarded a $15,000 discretionary grant to the Danbury Regional Commission on Child Care, Rights, Abuse, Inc’s COPES (Communication of Parent Effectiveness Skills) Program.

COPES is for parents and toddlers. Parents and their young children meet simultaneously, but separately, to learn discipline skills, child development information, and home management skills including budgeting, time management, and life skills such as anger management and stress management. The program is offered during ten-week sessions three times a year.

COPES was funded for two years by the Children’s Trust Fund. The Children’s Trust Fund itself was discontinued in 2001, but the DRCCCRA Board of Directors thought the program important enough to extend support and do fundraising to support the program.

FCCF’s annual cycle runs July 1 to June 30. Maria Vargas, who is program manager of COPES, has a degree in child development and is bilingual as is her program coordinator, Clementina Lunar.

The DRCCCRA is a not-for-profit agency headquartered in Danbury that serves 11 area towns in Northern Fairfield and parts of Litchfield Counties. The commission is a United Way member agency that seeks to prevent child abuse through empowering parents. Services are provided at no cost to the clients.

The Fairfield County Community Foundation is a growing community foundation with assets of almost $45 million in more than 180 different donor funds established by individuals, organizations, families, and corporations to serve Fairfield County now and in the future. Through the FCCR, donors support programs in arts, children and youth, women and girls, community and economic development, the environment, and health and human services. The grant to DRCCCRA was made possible partially by an individual FCCF donor advisor who is interested in programs serving the Latino community.

In the past year, FCCF awarded grants to nonprofit organizations totaling almost $7 million, according to Wilmot Harris, foundation board chair. In addition, the Fairfield County Non-Profit Loan Fund has provided approximately $10 million in loans to nonprofit organizations since 1992.

For more information about FCCF call 203-834-9393 or email info@fccfoundation.org.