{"id":72147,"date":"2025-07-03T14:08:41","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T18:08:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/?p=72147"},"modified":"2026-05-29T19:14:50","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T23:14:50","slug":"masslive-ciswh-backed-project-improves-access-child-care-over-600-children-experiencing-homelessness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/masslive-ciswh-backed-project-improves-access-child-care-over-600-children-experiencing-homelessness\/","title":{"rendered":"MassLive: CISWH-Backed Project Improves Access to Child Care for Over 600 Children Experiencing Homelessness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Child refugees and those experiencing homelessness in Massachusetts have climbed aboard the COLORI Playspace Express \u2014 a vibrant, mobile classroom operated by Amal Alliance \u2014 to access early childhood education and social-emotional learning directly at emergency shelters. The program provides a safe, joyful environment that helps children cope with trauma, develop social skills, and experience stability. <a href=\"https:\/\/ciswh.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Center for Innovation in Social Work &amp; Health (CISWH)<\/a> at BU School of Social Work (BUSSW) collaborated with Amal Alliance to better understand the effectiveness of the program.<\/p>\n<p><b><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Excerpt from \u201c<\/span><\/i><\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/news\/2025\/04\/more-than-600-homeless-children-have-boarded-this-eye-catching-bus-heres-why-it-matters.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><b><i><span data-contrast=\"none\">More than 600 Homeless Children Have Boarded this Eye-catching Bus. Here\u2019s Why It Matters<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/a><b><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u201d by <\/span><\/i><\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/staff\/hadley-barndollar\/posts.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><b><i><span data-contrast=\"none\">Hadley Barndollar:<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/a><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The weekly enrichment programming works to \u2018bring calm and tranquility\u2019 to an uncertain, transitional time in these children\u2019s lives, Danielle De La Fuente, CEO of the Amal Alliance, said.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018These are the most formative years of their life, the most important for brain development,\u2019 she said, noting that many of the kids have experienced varying levels of trauma and are exposed to toxic stress. The Center for Innovation in Social Work &amp; Health at BUSSW is currently studying the traveling classroom program, and \u2018everything is indicating we are seeing great progress.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/news\/2025\/04\/more-than-600-homeless-children-have-boarded-this-eye-catching-bus-heres-why-it-matters.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" class=\"button\">Read the full article<\/a><\/p>\n<h5 style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/category\/ciswh\/\">Read More CISWH News<\/a><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Child refugees and those experiencing homelessness in Massachusetts have climbed aboard the COLORI Playspace Express \u2014 a vibrant, mobile classroom operated by Amal Alliance \u2014 to access early childhood education and social-emotional learning directly at emergency shelters. The program provides a safe, joyful environment that helps children cope with trauma, develop social skills, and experience [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25047,"featured_media":71708,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7513,7438,7518,7440,4057,7522],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72147"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25047"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72147"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80757,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72147\/revisions\/80757"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}