Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young?s pop chart hit “Teach Your Children” could easily be the theme song for Friends of the Family Inc.
“Family Support Centers help young families that are struggling to raise little children, suchas families headed by an adolescent,” said Margaret Williams, executive director of the Baltimore-based Friends of the Family, a public-private nonprofit organization that contracts with and provides funding and oversight to more than two dozen family outreach centers in the state.
Founded in 1986 with funds from the Aaron Straus and Lillie Straus Foundation Inc., the Goldseker Foundation and Maryland?s Department of Human Resources, Friends of the Family was an answer to the “growing number of children coming into the foster care system who were [increasingly] younger and staying longer,” Williams said.
“The centers strengthen [clients?] parenting skills and [helps raise] their educational attainment level and earning power,” Williams said. “Our job is to provide funding and quality assurance services to the network. We train the staff to build it. We provide ongoing technical assistance, and we evaluate and monitor the programs.”
The $10 million-a-year, 15-person intermediary organization now contracts with, guides and supervises 24 different statewide public and private groups that provide free, full-service, parent-empowerment and child care services for challenged parents of children 3 years of age and under at the centers. It operates on federal and state subsidies and on corporate and individual donations.
“I would describe Friends of the Family as relentless, demanding and uncompromising in their advocacy for fragile families,” said Phil Holmes, vice president of Goodwill Industries of the Chesapeake and director of the Waverly Family Service Center in Baltimore.
The nonprofit also hosts a Parent Leadership Institute for clients ? many of whom are adolescent single parents impacted by drugs, poor education and sexual abuse ? at an offsite conference center four times a year. The institute teaches social services system navigation and personal presentation skills.
“What we?re after isthat clients speak up for themselves and their children,” Williams said. “It gives them confidence to be their child?s advocate.”
As proof of its effectiveness, Friends of the Family boasts a 92 percent immunization rate ? a marker datum for child health that statewide is 82 percent ? for client children, and a 100 percent rate for its children being either at developmental milestones or in remediation. Only 14 percent of its adolescent clients give birth again within a year, as compared with 34 percent nationally, Williams said.
More information
» Friends of the Family Inc.
1001 Eastern Ave., Second Floor
Baltimore, MD 21202
410-659-7701
www.friendsofthefamily.org
