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NEW
CHILDREN’S CENTER IN CHELSEA COURTHOUSE
SERVES FAMILIES WITH COURT BUSINESS
Boston, MA--In
an effort to help families who have business in the courts,
the Administrative Office of the Trial Court recently opened
the Chelsea Trial Court Children’s Center, the tenth court-based
child care center in the Commonwealth.Located in the Chelsea
Courthouse at 120 Broadway Street, the Children’s Center provides
drop-in child care, parenting information, service referrals,
and literacy resources to families with business at the courthouse.
Chief Justice
for Administration and Management Barbara A. Dortch-Okara
said, “The Children’s Center at the Chelsea Trial Court is
designed to serve parents and guardians who, by necessity,
bring children to the courthouse.Now they have a supervised,
educational environment in which to leave their young children
so they are not exposed to courtroom testimony or situations
that would be inappropriate for them.The child care centers
have been well received in other courthouses throughout the
state.”
A successful
collaboration among the courts, family agencies, and the community,
the children’s centers foster a positive court/community relationship,
and link families to local resources.The service, which is
free of charge, also facilitates the administration of justice.
Chelsea District
Court First Justice Timothy H. Gailey said, “Our new child
care center constitutes a positive alternative to having a
child sit in a courtroom, which is not an appropriate place
for children.By waiting in the center, children are spared
any anxiety or distress that might result from what they may
hear or see in the courtroom.”
Licensed by the
Office of Child Care Services and operated by Associated Day
Care Services, the Chelsea Court Children’s Center provides
care, support, and enrichment to children from birth through
age twelve.The professionally staffed program encourages self-esteem,
resilience, and literacy in children while promoting effective
child rearing.
Addressing the
importance of court-based child care, Douglas S. Baird, president
of Associated Day Care Services, noted,“In the next year,
in this one courthouse, more than fifteen hundred children
will be spared the confusion and sometimes traumatic events,
which may occur during a court proceeding.Court can be unsettling
enough for adults.The court child care center eliminates the
risk of upsetting a small child.”
The first court-based
Children’s Center in Massachusetts opened at the Roxbury District
Court in 1989, due to theleadership of Superior Court Judge
Julian T. Houston, who was a Roxbury District Court judge
then and who spearheaded the effort to establish child care
centers in courthouses.Since 1989, the following locations
in Massachusetts have court-based children’s centers to serve
families: Springfield (1992); West Roxbury (1995); Cambridge
(1997); Fall River (1999); Lawrence (1999); Dorchester (1999);
Boston (1999); Brockton (2001); and Chelsea (2001).
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