Community Spotlight: The Care Center
Meet our March 2025 Community Spotlight organization. The Care Center is a transformative education program for young mothers and other women who have had their educations interrupted by parenthood, financial challenges, and other systemic barriers.
Education + Support = Success
We pair rigorous academics with supportive services including childcare, transportation, meals, healthcare, counseling, and housing resources. With all this in place, women earn college degrees and change the trajectory for their families.
How would you describe the impact of your work?
Everything takes place in a turn-of-the-century brick mansion that we converted into an education center. The first floor houses a daycare for babies and toddlers. Classes take place on the upper and lower floors, along with our student support services.
The Care Center helps women who have been systematically disadvantaged navigate the path to financial stability. As women achieve their college and career goals, there is a powerful ripple effect. Of children under six throughout Hampden County, close to 50% in Holyoke, 43% in Springfield, and 23% in Chicopee live in poverty. These families are largely headed by single mothers. This disadvantaged standard of living begets a lifetime of poor education and poor health.
It only takes one generation to break this cycle. A mother with a college degree helps set her family up for a better life. According to a 2018 report by The Institute for Women’s Policy Research, a single mother with an associate’s degree will earn about $329,000 more working full time in her lifetime than she would with only a high school diploma, and about $610,000 more with a bachelor’s degree. Single mothers with even some college experience are less likely to live in poverty, and they are significantly less likely to live in poverty with a college degree. A mother’s college attendance also has a significant positive impact on her child’s behavioral and academic outcomes, future college matriculation, and health.
The benefits are clear, but the path to success is rocky. Young mothers looking to create a better future face a conundrum: A college education is critical to earning a living wage. But traditional colleges are not designed to support students facing poverty, early parenthood, and unstable housing.
To make success possible for young mothers and other under-resourced women, the college environment must accommodate their day-to-day reality. Our educational programs surmount these barriers by coupling a rigorous education with The Care Center’s proven supports, including childcare, transportation, meals, an onsite nurse practitioner, housing vouchers, and counseling. Small cohorts of students encountering similar challenges create tight-knit groups of women all committed to educational success.
Students who participate in the rowing program have transformative experiences. Some talk about how being in the boat has taught them to be more patient with their friends and their children. Others speak about the sense of tranquility that they felt on the water, and the sustenance they received from it. Some come to better understand the need for cooperation and teamwork. Others simply express how satisfying the work of rowing was for them.
Each year at The Care Center, more than 200 women will:
Participate in our high school-level program, which pairs GED (HiSET) and college preparation with a wealth of inspiring extracurricular courses and activities.
Attend our part-time college program, which offers supportive and accessible courses so that women can begin or resume college as their schedule allows.
Enroll in our full-time college, Bard Microcollege Holyoke, which culminates in an Associate in Arts degree from Bard College.
We proudly report that our onsite associate degree program, Bard Microcollege Holyoke, has a 71% college graduation rate (compared to just 8% for single mothers nationally.) Graduates enter the workforce prepared for meaningful jobs and economic mobility. Many (close to 60%) continue their educations, earning full scholarships to complete bachelor’s degrees at prestigious colleges and universities. They are working in public health and education. They are published writers and business owners. They are voting, buying homes, and advocating for their children and communities.
What program or project are you most excited about developing/expanding over the coming years, and why?
All of our programs are exciting and interconnected, so it’s hard to pick just one! That said, far too many of our students are experiencing housing insecurity and homelessness. To address this issue, we recently launched a pilot program in partnership with Holyoke Housing Authority. Ten students experiencing housing insecurity were selected by The Care Center to receive a 5-year housing voucher, along with security deposits and funds to cover rehoming expenses such as furniture, housewares, and moving costs. Students also received support and assistance from The Care Center’s college counselor to complete the application process, find apartments, negotiate with landlords, and navigate obstacles.
Not surprisingly, we found that stable housing led to improved mental health and increased classroom engagement! Once students stabilized in safe, affordable homes, they exhibited increased attendance, increased participation in counseling, increased motivation and confidence, and semester completion.
Unfortunately, the need for safe, stable housing among Care Center students far exceeds the supply. These students are living in shelters or housing that is unstable, overcrowded, or unsafe. Many are victims of domestic violence. To address this issue, we will be expanding the pilot and connecting more women and their children with safe and affordable homes in the year ahead.
Words from graduates:
“Three months into this beautiful thing called motherhood I came across something I like to call ‘Motherhood Village.’ You know it as ‘The Care Center.’ As soon as I entered, my daughter instantly had ten aunties!” - Shy’heema Reid
Read Shy’heema’s full speech (2024 Annual Fundraising Party)
At The Care Center we get a chance to walk both roads ahead of us, the road to success and the road of motherhood, because we can have it all! - Destiny Bermudez
Read Destiny’s full speech (2024 Annual Fundraising Party)
How can people support your mission?
Read our students’ writing and if it moves you, share with a friend.
Support tomorrow’s leaders today; donate to The Care Center.
Attend Sanctuary’s Restorative Flow Benefit Class
When: Sunday, March 30, 12:00-1:15pm
Where: In-studio at Sanctuary (Thornes Marketplace Level 3, 150 Main St., Northampton, MA
Led by Ellen Morbyrne. Unwind and find grounding and peace with this all-levels restorative flow yoga class. Begin with a supported restorative stillness and guided meditation, continue into a gentle flowing sequence using props, and land in a final propped restorative for a deep invitation to release and soften.
No yoga experience needed. All proceeds will go directly to The Care Center.
Pay-what-you-can, by donation: $5-50.* If you are unable to contribute, please reach out to us at studio@yoga-sanctuary.com for a free pass.
Attend The Care Center’s Annual Fundraising Party
When: May 15, 2025, 4:30-6:30pm
Where: The Log Cabin (500 Easthampton Road, Holyoke, MA)
At this moving event, 350 community leaders and friends of The Care Center come together to celebrate our students while raising funds to support our programs. Care Center students share inspiring stories about their experiences at The Care Center and their plans for the future.
Visit the Care Center’s Website
The Care Center has received coverage in major U.S. papers and news programs. Read about The Care Center in The New York Times, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Atlantic, and more here.
