South Central Family Center, Inc.

Bridging Those in Crisis

921 South Beckett Street

Columbia, TN

931-388-3840

email:

Annual Report

July 1, 2010- June 30, 2011

Section I: Brief History / Staffing

The Family Center is a private not for profit family enrichment agency. We began serving families in 1990. Our mission is to enrich and strengthen the quality of life for vulnerable Maury County residents in times of crisis, focusing on child abuse prevention and economic hardship assistance. Our final goal is to empower families to be self-supported, maintaining a safe and successful environment for families of all sizes. We provide intense, in-home visitations for at-risk households; monthly group parenting classes; increased awareness in the schools through puppetry; monthly budgeting seminars; and emergency financial assistance for rent, utilities, medications, eyeglasses, and other economic needs. In addition we maintain a supplemental food, hygiene, and cleaning product pantry.

Our current staffing structure is as outlined: one full time and one part time in-home parent coaches that provide services through the Child Abuse Prevention program, one part time coordinator for the Good Samaritan program, a part time clinical supervisor, a part time administrative assistant, and a full-time Executive Director, for a total of six employees. They are as follows:

Executive Director: Lolly Watson

Parent Coaches/Child Abuse Prevention: Lisa Fields and Julie Holloway

Clinical Supervisor: Shannon Smith

Good Samaritan Coordinator: Elaine Embrey

Administrative Assistance: Ida Lyon

Each day is totally dependent on the assistance of community volunteers. The day is divided in half, with the volunteers answering phones, relaying messages, and building food bags from our pantry. The volunteers for the 2010-11 year are as follows:

Linda CroneIda Lyon

Karen VestKathie Denson

Beth SandsCarol McCullough

Karen JohnsonTeresa Prinzo

Cheryl MartinRon Strand

Section II: Programs and Services

The FamilyCenter provides programs to reduce the risk of child abuse and neglect in MauryCounty. These programs are in-home visitation, monthly positive parenting classes, and Kids on the Block puppet show for children. Since 1999, we have administered the county’s Good Samaritan program to provide financial assistance to low-income families for rent, utilities, medication, eyeglasses, etc. We continue to maintain a database of clients obtaining financial support, in an attempt to prevent abuse of the programs countywide. We offer a monthly budgeting classthrough this program, as well as to our parent partnerships. We also maintain asupplemental food and household pantry. We distribute donated food, baby care items, and household and hygiene products to persons in need. A detailed description of each program and the number served is as follows:

  • In-Home Case Management: Parent Coaches work in the home to help families achieve goals while keeping their children healthy and safe. In-home services include family goal setting, parenting education, budgeting skills, referral to other resources, advocacy when needed, and social activities. Additionally, we offer several enrichment programs each year for these families.

Served: 38 families (42 adults & 93 children*)

This number reflects an increased number over the past year. As the economy continues to falter, more and more families are at risk for child abuse. Our parent coaches are stretched to the limit trying to assist and to extinguish smoking embers of child abuse. We have one full-time and one part-time parent coach. However, we were able to assist 38 families versus 34 from the previous year. The number of children served increased by 9. Our goal is to work smarter than ever before, serving an average of 25-30 families at all times. Besides the parent partnerships, we have been able to assist our families through the Keep the Spirit Alive account AND are able to financially assist them through the Good Samaritan account. We paid for car repair, driver licenses, gasoline, and school expenses.

  • Kids on the Block Puppetry: Puppet troupe that performs to 1st and 3rd grade classes in Maury County public schools. This program teaches the difference between discipline and abuse and how to report abuse, as well as to caution about “Stranger Danger.” The program on the first grade level was introduced for the first time this year. In addition, the show was performed for a high school class with special needs.

Served: 323 students in three elementary schools and one high school.

  • Positive Parenting Class: An educational class that provides practical tools and skills for effective alternative forms of discipline, child development and behavior management. This is free to anyone interested. Some attendees are court-ordered, some are DCS ordered, and many simply are striving to do a better job. This year we started offering the classes monthly, concentrating on a different age group each time. At present the classes offered are from birth through pre-school, elementary age children, and finally parenting teenagers. We have sent schedules to area judges, making them aware of the increased courses offered.

Served: 23 adults parenting 61 children

We have held more classes this year. In addition, many of our parenting sessions have been one-on-one with court-ordered parents. We feel this is helpful as many personal issues versus general concerns are covered.

  • The Good Samaritan Program: This program offers financial assistance for those in need of help with utility bills, rent, medication, eyeglasses and other economic needs. Funding for this program comes from local utility companies, area churches, and individual donations. In addition, we assisted Reverend Crosby with the ESFP federal funding.

Served: 904 families served with over $83,400 in financial assistance. This is a marked increase over last year when we were only able to help 776 families. The needs of the community have increased significantly as well.

  • Budgeting Class: The budgeting class is an educational workshop that teaches basic money management and better budgeting skills to anyone interested. Many of the principles taught are based on Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace. Classes are bi-monthly and free to anyone. It is our goal to work with not only those who have received financial assistance through the Good Samaritan program three times, thus requiring budgeting attendance, but also to send the notice to landlords, encouraging those who are getting behind on rent. The classes will increase to monthly this upcoming year.

Served: 34adults

  • Food Bank: In addition to our programs and workshops, we maintain an emergency food / household bank for families in need. We provide food for persons ineligible for the local food pantry. The pantry is inclusive of baby goods such as diapers, formula, wipes, etc. We also assist persons with household items such as hygiene supplies, cleaning products, paper goods, etc. This program operates totally on donations.

Served: 2,725 families, an increase of 1,100 over last year!

Food=@1200 families

Diapers/baby formula=-@500 families

Cleaning/hygiene products=@1,050 families

school supplies =78 children (Through grants we were able to supply school supplies, uniforms, backpacks, etc. for all of our case management families, at a cost of $2,100.)

  • Santa’s Workshop: Each year before Christmas we open our community room to assist those who have not received help from other local sources to provide Christmas for children. We collect toys, games, dolls, socks, hats, mittens and stocking stuffers and open our hearts to families in need. We have several schools, churches and businesses that donate to this community program. We allow families to select toys until every single item was chosen for some child’s Christmas morning delight.

Served: 253 children from 110 families (last year 130 children)

Section III: Demographics:

Statistical information is maintained for those served by this agency in the following programs: Home Visitation, Parenting Classes, Good Samaritan, and Kids on the Block.

This fiscal year, we provided services to:

Services to / Male / Female / White / Black / Hispanic / Native
Ameri / Bi-racial / Other
Home Visitation
Children / 35 / 58 / 45 / 20 / 9 / 0 / 19 / 0
Home Visitation Adults / 5 / 37 / 26 / 12 / 2 / 0 / 0 / 0
Parenting Classes / 9 / 14 / 21 / 2 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0
Kids On The Block* / 105 / 88 / 90 / 63 / 22 / 3 / 15 / 0
Good Samaritan** / 776 / 1203 / 1043 / 832 / 67 / 0 / 37 / 0

*Statistics for Kids on the Block reflect only 193 students. An additional 130 kindergarteners/first graders were too young to give demographics.

**Statistics on race and gender are not maintained for those served through our pantry. They are only maintained for those receiving financial assistance.

Section IV: Public Education / Marketing

Educating the community about the issue of child abuse is a large part of any prevention program. Each quarter, we publish a newsletter regarding the number of people served and activities/events of the agency. Our biggest public awareness events occur each April, which is Child Abuse Prevention month. Examples of such events:

  • Perhaps one of the single most important accomplishments this year has been the re-creation of our website. The new site is professional as well as informational. Besides current events, a calendar is included with upcoming workshops and educational activities.
  • Presentations to Civic Clubs: Columbia Noon and Breakfast Rotary Clubs, as well as the Mt. Pleasant Rotary, and a gathering of 250 influential people in the community for our Debt Elimination luncheon. In addition we maintained information centers at the Maury County Fair and the Senior Citizen Fair.
  • Other presentations: Maury County Health Council, Early Childhood Network, Community Advisory Board, DAR, numerous church groups, and theMaury County Baptist Association.
  • Exhibitions / Booths/Other Media: Maury County Fair, Senior Citizens Health Fair, Maury Alliance Leadership Maury Non-Profit Day and Proclamation Day for a kick-off for April, Child Abuse Prevention Month.
  • Our CAP month activities included: a media campaign to include newspaper and radio, information packets to three of our elementary schools (“Protecting Children is Everybody’s Job”bookmarks and antiseptic spray, Child Abuse Hotline magnets, full color Child Abuse Pocket Pals, and a cake denoting the same theme), blue ribbons tied to every tree on the downtown square, and a City/County Declaration Event on the square. The courthouse was adorned with blue and silver pinwheels, a symbol of safe and happy children.

SectionIV: Volunteers and Partners

We are fortunate to have numerous supporters that give of their talents and time to make our programs and community services successful. Our volunteers and partners are:

  • Daily Volunteers. We are blessed to have active community leaders volunteer for a half day weekly. These volunteers assist with answering the phones, fielding questions, servicing the food pantry, assisting administratively, and simply loving the people who come in our doors. They are a true luxury.
  • Junior Auxiliary: This women’s civic group has supported our programs and services for many years. They provide social activities for our case management families such as our annual Easter Egg Hunt, our back to school picnic, and our Santa’s Christmas party. Each child receives school supplies and a Christmas present. They also provide pantry items throughout the year.
  • ColumbiaStateCommunity College: The honor society collects food and children’s books as part of their Project Graduation. These items add about 659 cans of food to the pantry and about 424 books for our Santa’s workshop and are given away throughout the year.
  • Church Groups: We have several congregations, Sunday school classes, and youth groups that support us financially, collect items for our pantry, collect school supplies, mow our lawn, work on site for One Great Day of Services, and partner with our Good Samaritan program. They include: First Presbyterian Church of Columbia, Maury Hills Church, First United Methodist Church, First Cumberland Presbyterian, Liberty Baptist, McCains Presbyterian, Blue Springs Free Will Baptist Church, Riverview Baptist, Saint Catherine Catholic Church, Westminster Presbyterian, Zion Presbyterian, Saint Peters Episcopal, First Presbyterian of Spring Hill, Graymere Church of Christ, Parkway Baptist, Trinity Family, and Riverside United Methodist.
  • ColumbiaAcademy: The Junior Civitan club has a food drive each fall. The majority of our food for our pantry comes from this food drive..
  • Child Abuse Prevention month partners include: Centerstone Responsible Parenting, CASA, and Department of Children’s Services.
  • We partner with and participate on the Board of Directors of the Emergency Food and Shelter program. We assist the Maury County Ministerial Association with housing needs of low-income families.
  • Families First also has provided a volunteer. This person works up to thirty hours per week in our office while searching for employment. They assist with general office cleaning and maintenance. We also had a summer youth for eight weeks.
  • King’s DaughtersSchool students assist with general office cleaning twice per week and with shredding confidential papers. This gives the students an opportunity to gain experience in the community.

Section VI: Financial / Fundraisers

Our total agency expenditures for 2010-11 were $308,120.42 (this includes direct assistance through the Good Samaritan program). Due to decreased revenuea couple of years ago, we cut salaries across the board by 5%. In addition, we cut a full-time position. However, our attempts to remain flush and to improve have been fruitful. Therefore, our proposed budget for 2011-12 reflects a 7.9% increase. Our major contributions come from:

  • Department of Children’s Services, Community Based Child Abuse Prevention grant
  • United Way of MauryCounty
  • Victim Assistance Fund provided by MauryCounty criminal cases
  • First Farmers Bank
  • City of Columbia local government
  • US Bank Foundation
  • Churches (see list in previous section)
  • Utility Companies: Columbia Power and Water, DuckRiver Electric, Atmos Energy, and Mt. Pleasant Power
  • TN Conference of the United Methodist Church
  • Jennie Southall Trust Fund

Our annual special events raised over $90,000, of which $45,351 was specifically raised to pay off or pay down loans. Those events were:

  • Christmas Mail out
  • Reverse Raffle
  • Miss Maury County Beauty Pageant
  • Consignment Sale
  • Debt Elimination Luncheon

We have several individuals and businesses that support our annual fundraisers.

Section VII: Parent Involvement

As part of our DCS Child Abuse Prevention Grant, we have parent involvement in our programs and services. One of our most active and vocal members of our board of directors is a parent in our parent partnership program. In addition, we seek advice constantly as to how to improve our program, how to plan social events, etc. Our parents have planned menus for social events and have helped with food preparation. As we looked for enrichment subjects, we depended on our parents to let us know what their lives lacked. We look to our parents to coordinate communication and support for other families. A report is given at each board meeting as to number of families being served, spotlighting one family in particular.

Section VIII: Board of Directors

The Bylaws of the agency mandate a Board of Directors of no less than eight and no greater than twenty-four members. Each member serves a term of three years and may not serve more than two consecutive terms. At the end of the 2011fiscal year, we had nineteen Board members, eight added this year. We met monthly this year. The Executive Committee members for 2010-11 were: Ryan Massey, President; Archie Morrow, Vice President; Candace Warner, Secretary; and Karen Vest, Treasurer. The Board of Directors is responsible for hiring an executive director, overseeing the agency’s finances, fund raising, and public relations.

Section IX: Professional Development

Each Child Abuse Prevention staff person is required to complete twelve hours of training each year. Both parent coaches attended the annual conference, Connecting for Children’s Justice, with the Executive Director participating in the session with other grantees. Our staff participates regularly in the Maury County Health Council, Regional Health Council, Maury Alliance, and the Community Advisory Board. The Good Samaritancoordinator participates in the Emergency Food and Shelter Program Board. Staff also attends various workshops in the community, many of which have been provided at our facility by Prevent Child Abuse Tennessee.

Section X: Strategic Planning

The Long-Term Planning Committee held a contest with local graphic arts classes to design a new logo for The Family Center in an attempt to blend the responsibilities of both child abuse prevention and emergency financial assistance. With approval by the Board of Directors, the logo “Bridging Those in Crisis” was adopted. Signage, brochures, business cards, and badges have all been updated to reflect logo and mission. In addition, we have developed Enrichment Café sessions to be held monthly. Each session is designed to address an issue reflected in our parent partnerships. Three of the twelve sessions will include the children in the family…Back-to-school, Christmas, and Summer Reading.