Becoming a new parent is hard no matter what your situation (at least that’s what I hear), but it’s typically much harder for someone living in poverty. While finances are a big part of it, there are all kinds of factors that make having a new baby especially daunting for low-income parents. Room to Grow is a New York, NY based non-profit that aims “to enrich the lives of babies born into poverty throughout their critical first three years of development.” They start their work before the baby is born and continue through the first three years with the hope that a solid foundation will prevent the child from facing many of the challenges that typically affect a kid growing up in poverty.

Do You Need Room to Grow?

Room to Grow programming has three core goals. The first is pretty direct–they want to ensure that the children thrive in their first three years. The second is to give parents “the knowledge, skills, and confidence necessary to assure that children fulfill their emotional, intellectual and physical potential.” And the third is to give families access to the things they’ll need to raise a child–books, clothes, toys, and more. By focusing on both the financial and educational issues associated with poverty, Room to Grow puts children and families on a much better path than they would otherwise be on. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any stats on the kind of impact that Room to Grow has had, but they’ve been around since 1998 and have likely affected quite a few lives by now. If you’d like to be a part of that, visit Room to Grow’s Careers page. They’re currently looking for a Strategic Communications VISTA, a Program Associate, and a Development Associate (this one is posted on Idealist).

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• RoomToGrow.org
• Jobs at Room to Grow
• About Room to Grow
• Leadership at Room to Grow
• Room to Grow’s FAQs
• Room to Grow News

What have you heard about Room to Grow?

We've identified Room to Grow as having career opportunities in the following categories:

• all employers
• communications
• development
• education
• New York
• non-profit
• program development

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