Societal Changes

The last 40 years of the 20th century were tumultuous decades for the American family. In the 1960's, 1970's and 1980's, mothers moved into the workforce in unprecedented numbers. A climbing divorce and remarriage rate produced large numbers of single parent and stepparent families, and the number of adults rearing children in poverty also increased. Nearly all families with young children were under stress and there were no blueprints for how to cope.

Founding and Growing Families First

In 1988, Wheelock College and The Children's Museum in Boston founded Families First. During the fall of that year, we offered our first programs at The Children's Museum, programs that were based on the work of the Center for Parenting Studies at Wheelock College and were funded, in part, by the Charles Engelhard Foundation. Originally intended to meet the needs of visitors to the Museum, Families First soon expanded into the neighborhoods and suburbs of Boston as requests for our groundbreaking programs poured in.

By the end of 1992, Families First had outgrown The Children's Museum, its first home. We moved to Cambridge and began operation solely as an affiliate of Wheelock College. From 1993 to present, and again in 1995 to present we provided technical assistance and core curriculum content to replicate our program in Houston, Texas and Missoula, Montana respectively.

On July 1, 1998, at the start of the fiscal year, Families First became an independent Massachusetts non-profit corporation. A generous grant from The Boston Foundation assisted us in taking that major step. Since then Families First has maintained a close relationship with our founding institutions while functioning as an independent and self-sustaining agency.

Innovation at Families First

The 1990's saw the largest wave of immigrants to the United States in 100 years. Families First is working to develop programs for increasing numbers of linguistic minorities. We are continuing to meet the ongoing and newly emerging needs of parents of young children as well. Our newest curriculum helps parents deal with the challenges of technology, materialism and violence while continuing with our core mission of teaching how parents can promote healthy relationships in their families.

We look forward to future years of helping parents build positive, constructive and satisfying relationships with their children, to advancing the field of parenting education and family support, and to the continued interest and trust of our many friends and founders.