On Saturday, when the Grapevine Family and Resource Center held its annual fundraising walk in Antrim, Kristen Vance was there. But for the first time in nearly two decades, she was there as a supporter of the organization, not as its head.
When Vance took her position as executive director of the Grapevine, the organization consisted of one parent-child playgroup with a handful of families, based out of a small storefront.
In her 18 years heading the organization, she’s seen it grow into a thriving center, with numerous programs that make it an asset to the community.
In August, Vance stepped away from the Grapevine to allow current Executive Director Melissa Gallagher to take the reins. After a short sabbatical, Vance has begun to dust off her resume and consider her employment options, she said. And while she has yet to make a firm decision about her next move, her deep roots at the Grapevine are making her lean toward a larger look at how the state addresses child and family resources.
“I worked with Family Support N.H. and N.H. Children’s Trust to draft legislation creating a system of Family Resource Centers of Quality, encompassing best practices and a process to ensure standards are met,” said Vance. “That’s when I started to think on a larger level about family support.”
Vance said the stage is set for a greater understanding of the importance of family support efforts and what they are really intended to do.
“As a state and as a country, we are beginning to understand the critical nature of family support in the lives of children and in the health of our communities,” said Vance.
“Family support touches all aspects of a person’s life and prevents problems like child abuse, drug and alcohol abuse, poor health, poverty – we know this. And we know what family support means and how to do it.”
There has been a tendency in the past, said Vance, for people to view family support services as a type of social services or only for those in crisis situations. But that’s not the truth of it, said Vance, and has never been the stance of the Grapevine.
“Parents are not only learning from an educator, but each other,” said Vance of the Grapevine’s parent and child support systems.
And that’s a support system that Vance relied on when her son, now a high schooler, was born and she herself participated in the Grapevine’s parent support groups and enrolled her son in the Grapevine’s pre-school program.
“I considered myself one of the luckiest parents around. I was surrounded by experts, and when I say that, I’m not just talking about the excellent staff, but the parents,” said Vance.
Classes that she took as a new parent with Carol Lunan, who still is an educator at the Grapevine, still have an impact on how Vance communicates with her son, even now as he approaches adulthood. And both she and her son made life-long friendships in those groups – and that is a key point, said Vance. Making those relationships.
“Community is made up of relationships, a sense of place, and doing the right thing,” said Vance. “If we can truly see our neighbors, understand deeply how we depend on each other, and act on that understanding, we have community.”
That community is what makes the Grapevine so important, said Vance.
It becomes a place where a father who was driving his wife to the hospital to give birth to their second daughter stopped by the Grapevine to tell his parenting class to share the news, as his laboring wife waited in the car.
It’s a place where parents gathered in silent solidarity when they were feeling lost and afraid on Sept. 11, 2001.
It’s about that first community supper, where Vance’s husband cooked turkey tetrazinni, a meal she still remembers.
And it will continue to be about these things, said Vance, which is why she felt it was time to let someone else step into her shoes, and let herself move onto her next big thing.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 244.