Early Intervention
Services for Children, Infants, Individuals and Families
We provide an array of services for children, infants, individuals and families facing life's greatest challenges. Read about our various programs below, organized by category.
Services for Infants with Developmental Delays
The Bay Cove Early Intervention (EI) program serves more than four hundred children under three years of age, who are developmentally delayed, have a known disabling physical or mental condition, or who are at risk of developmental delays due to biological or environmental factors. The programs goal is to promote the physical, mental and emotional development of eligible children through services provided at the program site on Victory Road, in the childrens homes and in the community. Bay Coves EI program has been providing such services to children and their families for the past twenty years.
The Small Wonders Nursery School provides exceptionally high quality early childhood education for children from Dorchester and surrounding towns. Located on the first floor of the Daniel C. Boynton Child Development Center, the nursery school benefits from a state-of-the-art facility and the services of highly skilled professional caregivers. The excellence in design of the physical space and the low ratio of children to staff (3 staff members for every 1 child) contribute to the examplary status of the Small Wonders program.
Special Education Services
Bay Cove Academy is a psychoeducational school serving adolescents, ages 12 to 21, from the greater Boston area who have a history of severe emotional, academic or behavioral difficulties. Students are referred to the Academy because their needs exceed the services that a public school can provide.
Youth Substance Abuse and Violence Prevention Programs
The Adolescent Violence Intervention Program serves boys ages 12 to 18 who have histories of dating violence, violence towards peers, and/or violence towards parent(s). The program is eighteen weeks and is open ended. A full evaluation assessment is done for each adolescent to determine appropriateness for the program.
Children who live in high-risk settings where poverty, domestic violence, gang activity and alcohol and drug abuse are prevalent need exposure to positive alternatives. ASAP (Alcohol & Substance Abuse Program) youth prevention programs provide life skills training, personal growth opportunities and pre-vocational exploration in a safe, supportive environment. The focus is on reducing risk factors while building resiliency towards the inevitable challenges these children will face in their adolescent years.
Family Support Services for Adults and Children with Mental Illness or Developmental Disabilities
Family Support is a variety of family-focused, community-based programs designed to support families with mentally or developmentally disabled family members living at home. Often it is the family of a mentally or developmentally disabled person that ends up being the primary care provider for that individual. This program is designed to relieve the pressures that these families face every day.
The Parent Support program provides multiple supports to parents or other caretakers with a child or teen who has a mental illness. This program is designed to relieve the many pressures that these families must face every day.
Project Able is a set of family-focused, community-based programs supporting one hundred Chinese and Vietnamese individuals with developmental disabilities. Raising a developmentally disabled child is a considerable challenge for any family. It is even more difficult when the family speaks Chinese or Vietnamese as their main language, since support services are rarely offered in these languages. Project Able is designed to relieve the pressures that these families must face day after day. The programs at Project Able currently serve approximately one hundred Asian families in the Metro Boston area. Referrals to Project Able are typically made by the Massachusetts Department of Mental Retardation (DMR).