Children’s Trust brings together a network of family resource centers (FRCs) in South Carolina that unites local providers and trains them on national standards that help support and strengthen families.
One primary way to prevent child abuse and neglect is by ensuring families can meet their basic needs. Children’s Trust of South Carolina recently announced partnerships with four community organizations across the state to do just that.
Family Outreach of Horry County in Conway, Just Say Something in Greenville, The Parenting Place in Easley and Upstate Family Resource Center in Spartanburg will each receive funding from Children’s Trust, which serves as the link between local communities and federal grants.
The organizations are known as family resource centers. They help local residents access support services, such as parenting classes, mental health and family counseling, childcare, job training and everyday support such as diapers, food and clothing.
“Family resource centers help create strong communities, parents and caregivers; these centers are a treasure in their communities because they work to support the whole family in one place,” said Alek Reaves, Children’s Trust family engagement and resource coordinator. “We are thrilled to partner and help ensure programs and support services are accessible for families within local communities across the state.”
Each organization will receive funding to expand or offer new prevention services from the beginning of this year through September 2024. These services include home visiting, which supports new mothers and their babies, or parent education programs, such as the Strengthening Families Program and Triple P (Positive Parenting Program).
As a statewide intermediary organization, Children’s Trust works to support the provision of services offered to families by connecting 44 total organizations to funding. For these four family resource centers, Children’s Trust will administer funding from two federal grants—Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention (CBCAP) and the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program.
The newly named funded partners are also members of the South Carolina Family Resource Center Network, a group of 13 organizations and supporting partners convened by Children’s Trust. The network works to build the capacity of family-serving organizations by promoting best practices, standards of quality, capacity building, peer learning and programming initiatives. The network promotes national standards of quality and is a member of the National Family Support Network. Its ultimate goal is to build protective factors that increase family stability, enhance child development and reduce child abuse and neglect.
“Family resource centers have been working alongside families for decades,” said Reaves. “It has been exciting for Children’s Trust to convene with these centers on the state level and to work collaboratively to support families.”
Family Resource Center Network grantees include:
Family Outreach in Horry has supported their community for 39 years by providing basic needs, support and parenting education. They work specifically to serve teen mothers and families with young children. As a network grantee, Family Outreach will work with community partners in Horry to offer Triple P (Positive Parenting Program). This partnership supports Family Outreach and its goal to deliver educational and support programs to parents.
Just Say Something in Greenville has worked hand in hand with youth and parents for 35 years to support open, honest and ongoing conversations specifically about drugs and alcohol. This partnership supports Just Say Something as they seek to expand services for families who are Hispanic. Just Say Something will provide one-on-one support and discussion groups for Spanish speaking parents in Greenville.
The Parenting Place in Pickens has worked to strengthen families by providing programs that advocate for the safety and prevention of child abuse and neglect for 31 years. The Parenting Place has been an accredited site of home visiting model Healthy Families America since 2016. This partnership supports their vision of happy, healthy children growing up in homes free of abuse and neglect as it provides them the ability to expand their services and meet with more families within their community.
Upstate Family Resource Center in Spartanburg has worked to provide families with support services and educational programs for 15 years. Upstate Family Resource Center (UFRC) strives to strengthen families and encourage behavior that increases educational outcomes by providing opportunities for families to learn to work better together. The Strengthening Families Program (SFP) will support their goal as they partner with local elementary schools to implement this program.
To find a local family resource center, go to scParents.org.
