LYNN — Family and Children’s Services (F&CS) home visitor Guadalupe Arana has received the Frannie Hall Professional Development Award for her work at the organization.
Arana, a Saugus resident, will use the scholarship to pay for online English-as-a-second-language classes at North Shore Community College.
“We have to continue helping and supporting, because there’s a lot of people in need and that’s why we are here,” Arana said. “I received the opportunity, and then I’m going to share my opportunity with others in the future.”
In her work as a home visitor, Arana works with around a dozen families in the Chelsea-based Healthy Families program to help connect them with necessary resources and bring the skills they learn at other F&CS programs into the home.
Susan Archer, director of development at the program, said that often, the families who take part in the program find it difficult to make it to one of F&CS’ three locations on a regular basis.
“The home visitors work one on one with those families to encourage them, help model healthy child-rearing behaviors, help them set goals for themselves,” Archer said. “Whatever they need, they look at the whole person, the child, and kind of embrace them and help provide them resources. If we don’t provide the resources, we can lead them to where the resources are going to be.”
Frannie Hall, a longtime social worker, served on the board of F&CS for 51 years. She began the scholarship program to help employees at the organization further their education.
“Anything that helps to point young people in a direction is all for the good,” Hall said.
