Home >Family Resource Centers

Since 1994, The Chapel Hill Training-Outreach Project has been committed to providing assistance to the residents of communities which are struggling with these and other issues of poverty, substance abuse, joblessness, and isolation.

Today, the Chapel Hill Training-Outreach Project is managing three Family Resource Centers in the Orange County area of North Carolina.

• Mission and Goals of the CHTOP Family Resource Center Program
• Principles of Family Support
• What is a Family Resource Center (FRC)?
• FRC Services
• Collaboration is the Key!
• A list of Orange County Partners
• How to establish a Family Resource Center
• How effective is Family Support?
• Our Current Locations
• For more information

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What is a Family Resource Center?

A Family Resource Center is a warm and welcoming place in the community where any family member can go, not only in times of need, but as a regular part of day-to-day life. Family Resource Centers offer parent education classes, child development activities, parent-to-parent support groups, Afterschool and academic enrichment, GED and literacy instruction, health information, referrals and many other programs, activities and services. These services are modified and added to, depending on the needs and desires of local families.

Family Resource Centers are unique in their approach to working with families: they build families' strengths and capacities, serve as a hub for the community, work for positive social change, and offer help without stigma. Parents act as resources in many capacities, from serving on a decision-making board, participating in Center programs, learning job skills to cooking for a potluck community dinner.

Chapel Hill Training Outreach Project, Inc. manages three Family Resource Centers in Orange County, North Carolina, serving four neighborhoods. The Centers are community-based and located in the midst of the neighborhoods they serve.

The Family Resource Center (FRC) is a one-stop, centralized source for family services, which may be provided through information, referral, on-site, or home-based strategies.

The Family Resource Center provides a comprehensive array of family support programs, services and activities.

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 Services may include:

Establishing a Family Resource Center

While not every FRC will follow the steps as listed, CHTOP, Inc staff recommends strongly that each step is addressed at an early stage of development.

1. Identify Funding: The minimum annual cost of operating an FRC is approximately $75,000. State and local government grants combined with private foundation and other fundraising activities are the common sources for this funding. In working with local government officials, do funding opportunities emerge? Are facilities available at no cost? What other, "in-kind" contributions are available?

2. Identify the Neighborhood: The best sources of information on identifying communities that would benefit from the establishment of an FRC include:

• The county Department of Social Services
• Town and city government officials
• Town, city and county police and sheriff departments

3. Identify Neighborhood Leadership: Since raising neighborhoods is a grassroots effort, it must begin with the residents themselves. There are various strategies for identifying leadership in communities. Here are three that are commonly used:

• Recommendation of municipal and county staff and others who may know the community.
• Community meeting. After circulating flyers and posting announcements, host a meeting at a convenient location and discuss possibilities of a new center.
• Canvass the neighborhood with paid volunteers from the neighborhood if possible. This will develop residential involvement and will also provide an assessment of neighborhood needs and resources.

4. Develop a Team: As a result of the first three steps, there will emerge a team of residents, municipal, county, school, faith community and health personnel, as well as local community development specialists. This team will form the basis for the FRC’s Advisory Board.

5. Acquire Facilities: FRC’s operate out of almost any kind of facility: apartments, houses, trailers, community centers, office buildings, schools, etc. They may be set up in rented, donated or borrowed spaces. They may or may not share facilities with a community-policing substation.

6. Recruit Volunteers: Volunteers come from the neighborhood and from the greater community. They come from schools, businesses, and civic and religious organizations.

7. Identify Community Needs: A community needs assessment should be conducted initially and then updated as needed.

8. Identify Potential Resources: Potential resources are identified and contracted by staff, who then make recommendations to the Advisory Board.

9. Design, Implement and Evaluate the Program: With staff recommendations, the Advisory Board approves the plan and oversees its implementation. As the program is being designed, evaluation issues need to be considered which answer the question, "How do we know that we did what we said we wanted to do?"

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Mission and Goals

Building strong families, healthy children, and safe and supportive communities is the mission of the Orange County Family Resource Center program.

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Resources, Division of Social Services provide the main source of funding for the Orange County Family Resource Center program. The FRC's overarching goals, as defined by the state DSS, are to:

• Enhance children's development and ability to attain academic and social success.
• Promote successful transition from early childhood programs and childcare to public schools.
• Assist families in achieving economic independence and self-sufficiency.
• Mobilize public and private community resources to help children and families in need.
• Ensure that plans are designed and implemented to provide families with services in a holistic family centered manner.

Principles of Family Support

• Staff and families work together in relationships based on equality and respect
• Staff enhance families' capacity to support the growth and development of all family members---adult, youth, and children.
• The family serves as a valuable resource to it's own members, to other families, to programs, and to communities.
• Programs affirm and strengthen families' cultural, racial, and linguistic identities and enhance their ability to function in a multicultural society.
• Programs are embedded in their communities and contribute to the community-building process.
• Programs advocate with families for services and systems that are fair, responsive, and accountable to the families served.
• Practitioners work with families to mobilize formal and informal resources to support family development.
• Programs are flexible and continually responsive to emerging family and community issues.
• Principles of family support are modeled in all program activities, including planning, governance, and administration.

How Effective is Family Support?

Family support is about investing in the promotion of the positive things that families want for their children. In the long term, family support is a societal investment in the creation of happy, healthy, productive citizens. This investment has an impact on the families who participate in services, and on society as a whole. Research shows that by investing in positive outcomes for children and families, family support programs also, over the long term can lead to:

• fewer teenage pregnancies
• less juvenile delinquency
• improved behavior and performance of children at school
• fewer incidents of child abuse and neglect
• more families moving from welfare to work
• increased self-confidence, knowledge of child development and parenting skills among parents
• greater educational attainment among parents

Through these positive outcomes, family support allows us as a society to invest in the development of citizens rather than putting money into more prisons, foster homes, and public welfare. This investment has a tremendous effect on overall productivity as a society and on the ability of those receiving family support services to contribute to us as a nation. (Excerpted from a report by Family Support America, 2000).

Collaboration is the Key!

Collaboration has been a key to the success of the Family Resource Center program and is recognized as a top priority in the continued growth and service of the Centers. Collaboration among numerous agencies, student organizations, town and city governments, school systems, departments of health and social services, civic and religious organizations provides on-site programs, services, and activities. Representation on local Advisory Boards, scholarships and financial assistance, volunteers, and in-kind donations such as educational materials, transportation, and Center space are also contributions that support FRC programs. Chapel Hill Training Outreach Project, Inc., in its capacity as a networking hub, is at the center of collaborations, coordinating efforts between the Centers and outside agencies while providing technical assistance, administrative support, and training to staff and Advisory Boards of the Centers.

Family Resource Centers (FRC's) can only succeed through true commitment and collaboration between families and organizations that work together. Family Resource Centers re-invent how services are delivered by bringing resources into the community to families, based on their identified desires and needs.

Family Resource Centers partner with other agencies and community groups in order to provide a broad range of programs, activities and services to meet the total needs of families. The school systems, departments of health and social services, the local police department, churches, and many other agencies and service organizations, in addition to volunteers are vital to the Centers' programs.

Because each FRC is located in the neighborhood that it serves, it provides a unique and vital role, not only within the neighborhood, but also for the community-wide human service provision network. Bringing services into the community not only eliminates tangible barriers to participation such as transportation, but also demonstrates a willingness to meet parents and families “half way”. The FRC program has become an essential partner in this process for many local agencies.

Our Community Partners:

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Our Current Locations

	<<< South Estes Family Resource Center 391 S. Estes Drive Chapel Hill, NC 27517 (919) 932-3606
>>> Dobbins Hills Family Resource Center 1749-A Dobbins Drive Chapel Hill, NC 27514 (919) 967-2433
	<<< Trinity Court /Pritchard Park Family Resource Center B-8 Trinity Court Chapel Hill, NC 27516 (919) 932-2910 Click here to visit the Trinity Court/Pritchard Park Afterschool website
>>> AirportGardens Family Resource Center 821Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. Chapel Hill, NC 27514 (919) 942-4006

For More Information

Family Resource Centers have proven to be effective in reaching "hard to reach" populations. Local control of planning and implementation builds trust, and facilitates the effective delivery of services that are available through local government agencies and other "helping" organizations. The FRC gives residents the opportunity to improve their neighborhoods making them safer and more nurturing for themselves, their children, and their families.

If you are interested in learning more about Family Resource Centers in the Orange County area of North Carolina, please contact

Karen Solomon
Director of Community Development
Chapel Hill Training-Outreach Project, Inc.
800 Eastowne Dr. Suite 105
Chapel Hill, NC 27514
(919) 490-5577 Ext. 227
(919) 490-4905 fax
ksolomon@intrex.net