What is our philosophy?

• We believe that healthy families are the foundation of a healthy society.
• We believe that all children deserve to have healthy families who will support, educate, nurture, protect and encourage them.
• We believe that an entire community is responsible for lifting up and supporting its members for the betterment of all.

What is our story?

Family Resource Center was founded by Karen in 2006 using the experience gained during 18 years as a child protection worker. She witnessed children reuniting with their parents after an incident of abuse.  The point at which contact is reinstated is a golden opportunity for the child and parent to experience a changed relationship.  She concluded that rural Colorado needed a center that specialized in supervised visitation.  Supervised settings provide a controlled environment, rules for the parent that are designed to maintain safety from emotional and physical harm. and quality toys which enable children to express emotions through play.   

Although there were excellent models of visitation and safe exchange programs across the state, there were none in rural, northeast Colorado. Some children, whose divorced parents were in a high conflict relationship, but not involved with Social Services, had no avenue for contact with their non-custodial parent.  The children were caught in the middle, but needed to maintain the relationship with their non-custodial parent  Unsupervised contact presented a risk that the child would be exposed to tense and sometimes violent outbursts when in the presence of both parents.  In some cases the court ordered that a third party to supervise the transfer of a child from one parent to the other.  If no relatives were willing to be the third party, families defaulted to exchanging children in places like the police department,  the Walmart parking lot or McDonalds.   When those places were not available, the child was denied contact. 

In March of 2006 a pilot program was created through an alliance with the First Presbyterian Church of Sterling, Colorado and funding from the Justice Department of Colorado. During the next year Karen discovered other services were needed to help strengthen families. The supervised parenting time program (which had been named Hand in Hand) was doing well, but using a shared space made it difficult to accomodate families' schedules. 

By collaborating with four other organizations, the visitation program secured a location, non-profit status and a new name, Family Resource Center. The mission was broadened to encompass other services that were absent in the community, but needed. Shared expenses, shared projects and a central location for dissemination of resource information were some of the benefits of this collaboration. In September of 2006 this new adventure was launched!

In September of 2007 Family Resource Center, one of the tenant programs plus two outside programs co-sponsored a domestic violence conference, which drew 150 + participants. In October of 2007 the Family Resource Center and Rural Solutions collaborated to launch programs that support and educate fathers. The Family Resource Center's program was named Dads 4 Kids. Family Resource Center began offering parenting classes.

In January of 2009 a program called Game Plan for Success was patterned after a similar program in Denver called Colorado Youth at  Risk.  In Game Plan for Success adult "coaches" from the community are recruited to encourage students, who are facing challenges that impede their progress toward high school graduation and fullfulling their goals.  

Where are we going?

• We are a helpful community partner to Logan County's public agencies that serve children and families.
• We are a community contact for families who are looking for local resources to keep their family strong.
• We develop  programs that will strengthen families in Logan County and the surrounding area.
• We are a catalyst to for collaborations between organizations in the community, which provide services that benefit families.

Contact us here: thefamilyresourcecenter@yahoo.com

The Family Resource Center is located at 120 Main St., Sterling, Colorado 80751. Our phone number is 970-526-2439 or our cell phone number is 970-520-2939.  Follow us on Facebook and Twitter (@familyrc2)