Playgroup

Located at The Shack Neighborhood House. A free program held on Mondays and Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. For families with children under three years old. This program focuses on developmental activities and parental information.

Parents must attend. Lunch provided. No registration required.

Baby Pantry

Located at The Shack Neighborhood House. Hours are on Thursdays from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. Both baby and adult care items are provided based upon availability.

Families are allowed to utilize baby pantry services once a month.

Food Pantry

Wednesday from 12p.m. – 3p.m. in Arnettsville, WV. Please contact Lauren directly (call or text) at 304-680-0590 for more information.

Respite

Located at The Shack Neighborhood House. A free drop-off program held on Fridays from 9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. This program focuses on the importance of free-form play.

Parents must bring a lunch, change of clothes, and diapers/wipes. Registration required by phone call or text to 304-288-9905 by the end of Wednesday that week. Must receive a confirmation of registration to attend.

Home Visitation

A free program that focuses on parental education, parent-child activities, child developmental expectations, and behavior management to improve parent-child interaction. We use the PAT (Parents as Teachers) curriculum. PAT is an evidence-based parent education model that uses personal visits, group connections, resource networks, and childhood screening to increase parenthood knowledge and childhood well-being.

Happy School

Located at The Shack Neighborhood House. Happy School is our free primary classroom opportunity for kids ages 3 to 5. It is a 3 day a week classroom experience lasting 2.5 hours per class. A unique feature of Happy School is a parent’s group that meets 2 days per week while the children are in the classroom. This group provides information on child developmental and behavioral issues, and also provides parents a social outlet. Parents are offered a day off each week for some free time without children.

One of the primary goals is to provide children a classroom environment to develop and enhance their social and emotional skills, in preparation for their entrance into school. Another goal is to provide a learning environment where cognitive/speech skills, motor skills, and self-help skills are taught in a child friendly, play filled, low pressure environment.

During the school year children are screen to monitor development and progress. We use the Ages and Stages Developmental and Social Screen, along with language and hearing screens by community providers. We want to be sure all kids are continuing to develop appropriately and if not, we can assist with referrals to community agencies.