Cass County Family Centers are struggling to stay open, because prior funding sources have reduced or phased out payments. Grants are hard to find these days.
This is the message the five family center directors brought to the county board May 6.
Family centers opened in the mid-1990s after Cass County received a PEW Foundation grant to become one of three model sites in the state to develop family support programs.
Cass County/Leech Lake Children's Initiative Collaborative Board formed to administer that sizeable private foundation grant. The collaborative has split as much as $75,000 annually among the county's five family centers during the intervening years. This year, they will split $30,000. That will drop to $15,000 next year and be phased out in 2010.
Fewer supplemental grants are available today. Many grants don't allow using the grant to pay overhead costs like utilities and insurance or staff salaries.
There are family centers at Pillager, Pine River, Longville, Walker and Cass Lake. Each community decides what programs they will offer to meet unique needs within their city and surrounding area.
"If families are going to change, you have to stick with them for three years," said Leslie Bouchonville, Pine River-Backus Family Center director. She sees alcohol and drugs playing a huge role, passing from generation to generation.
To stop the cycle, that family center focuses on home visits, often beginning at the pre-natal stage of family development.
All family centers offer child abuse prevention, family support services, youth education/intervention and enrichment services and resource referrals.
Many offer chemical use/prevention education, children's educational enrichment and recreation classes, clothing depots, home visits, child care, child-teen health check-ups and immunization clinics, WIC clinics, mental health screenings and referrals, food shelves, a community garden, mentoring, a remote link to county social services, parent education, support groups for disabilities and parents, plus at-risk services.
After initially starting the family centers, the collaborative also began to help the county's schools offer day treatment programs, social workers who provided early intervention for youth and families and mental health professionals who assist students who develop more serious problems.
Schools, too, are struggling, not only with less state funding for their programs, but also a decline in money from the collaborative.
Cass County Board has referred both the family center directors and school superintendents to the county budget committee to present their needs for more money in 2009.
The prospect for county money will not be rosy, however. Administrator Robert Yochum has told the commissioners they will have to look at cutting some county staff in 2009.
There is currently a county hiring freeze in effect.
Anyone who wants to donate to their local family center or has a fundraising idea can contact the centers at the following phone numbers: Pillager, 746-4009; Pine River, 587-4292; Longville, 363-3348; Walker, 547-4273; Cass Lake, 335-7837.
