KTS and Mill Pond were on the decline because Springfield Public Schools (SPS) had virtually stopped referring students to out-of-district programs, instead building in-district programs that provided similar services to those at the Study Home’s schools. Back in 2005, after years of low enrollment numbers at some of the residential programs, the Board’s Executive Committee had created a contingency plan to consolidate its operations should the agency need to downsize. The plan called for the agency to vacate the Sherman Street campus and move all of the remaining programs and personnel to the Mill Pond campus in Sixteen Acres. Such drastic measures were avoided when residential enrollments began to creep up again, but with both schools hurting, KTS relocated to the Mill Pond campus in 2008, leaving the space it had occupied since its founding in 1966. The landscape of child welfare and social service provision was changing, as McCafferty noted in 2005. Following DSS’s shifting priorities, the Study Home had begun to from a child protective agency to a family preservation one.” For the “move Study Home, evidence of that shift materialized in 2010. With the aid of a $50,000 Community Development Block Grant from the City of Springfield, the old KTS building was renovated to create a Family Center for use by the Study Home’s growing family and foster care programs. SNAPSHOT: LIFE AT THE STUDY HOME IN THE 2000s Kevin Joslyn, Volunteer (2008-12) and Camp CASA Founder/Director (2013) In 2008, days before beginning his freshman year at Western New England University, Kevin Joslyn joined a freshman orientation program on volunteering in Springfield and found himself painting the Cottage basement with local artist and art
KTS and Mill Pond were on the decline because Springfield Public Schools (SPS) had virtually stopped referring students to out-of-district programs, instead building in-district programs that provided similar services to those at the Study Home’s schools. Back in 2005, after years of low enrollment numbers at some of the residential programs, the Board’s Executive Committee had created a contingency plan to consolidate its operations should the agency need to downsize. The plan called for the agency to vacate the Sherman Street campus and move all of the remaining programs and personnel to the Mill Pond campus in Sixteen Acres. Such drastic measures were avoided when residential enrollments began to creep up again, but with both schools hurting, KTS relocated to the Mill Pond campus in 2008, leaving the space it had occupied since its founding in 1966. The landscape of child welfare and social service provision was changing, as McCafferty noted in 2005. Following DSS’s shifting priorities, the Study Home had begun to “move from a child protective agency to a family preservation one.” For the Study Home, evidence of that shift materialized in 2010. With the aid of a $50,000 Community Development Block Grant from the City of Springfield, the old KTS building was renovated to create a Family Center for use by the Study Home’s growing family and foster care programs. SNAPSHOT: LIFE AT THE STUDY HOME IN THE 2000s Kevin Joslyn, Volunteer (2008-12) and Camp CASA Founder/Director (2013) In 2008, days before beginning his freshman year at Western New England University, Kevin Joslyn joined a freshman orientation program on volunteering in Springfield and found himself painting the Cottage basement with local artist and art
CSH.history.FINAL3_.docx