State Program Spotlight:
Family Resource Centers, North Carolina

Onslow and Swain counties are at opposite ends of North Carolina and are quite different in many ways. Nestled in the picturesque Smoky Mountains in westernmost North Carolina, most of Swain County is national park land and many of its 13,000 or so residents work in tourism or the service industry. More populous Onslow County is on the east coast and includes Camp Lejeune, the US Marine Corps’ biggest base.

Despite their differences, North Carolina State University Extension identified the need for family resource centers in both these counties and this CYFAR project is now in its third year. It builds on previous projects, going back to when CYFAR programs were called “initiatives.”

One in four of Swain County’s children lives in poverty. “It’s a beautiful place, but tourism doesn’t provide high-paying jobs,” said Robin Roper, state project director. Surveys showed there was little access to education, that Internet penetration was low, and that an increasing number of children were living with relatives other than their parents, due to unemployment and rising drug use. These unexpected families commonly experience financial and emotional stress. “And there’s a high correlation between family stress and abuse and neglect,” Roper said.

The Swain County Extension Center is located in a renovated school building owned by the local community college. The CYFAR project has created a family resource center within the Extension Center and provides nutrition education, school enrichment and health and wellness programming for families. Off site, they offer Yo-Girl a yoga curriculum that encourages teen girls to exercise and adopt choices that lead to healthy living. Roper and program staff hopes that the creative use of yoga as a vehicle to better health will transfer to family involvement and will lead to better communication and family interaction.

The high number of children living with someone other than their parents led the staff to include “Relatives as Parents” as one component of the project. The Swain County site provides computer and Internet access and training by running a mobile computer lab, available in various sites around the county. About 20 people per month take advantage of the computers and training offered in Swain County. “This program is just now taking off,” Roper said.

The needs in Onslow County are different, in part because of the growing number of English Language Learners there. A substantial minority of students in one area of the country are English language learners. “In Onslow County, we are very much geared to the Latino-Hispanic community in Richlands.” Roper said.

Typically, mothers in these families stay home with their children, so many of the activities at this site center on helping them to learn English and to support their children’s language learning skills. CYFAR staff here work closely with Richland’s Primary School staff, including its social worker, a native Spanish speaker. “It is such a beautiful cooperative effort”, Roper said.

The project has also placed a lending library in the school. In addition to other resources, students and parents can check out a Follett Library Read-At-Home Backpack. These packs come filled with early-reader books such as “If You Give A Mouse A Cookie” in Spanish and in English. A second set of the Backpack books is available in the Family Resource Center located in the Onslow County Extension Center a few miles away from the school. In addition to language enrichment, families participate in nutrition, parenting and wellness classes. To assist in these classes, the CYFAR staff has purchased educational tools such as food models of American and Latino cuisine.

Hiring a Spanish speaker as the local program assistant has built a bridge into this community, Roper said, and it has also fostered a bit of intercultural skill development for the staff. Even when language is not a barrier, work style may be. For example, coming from a work culture where one doesn’t directly bring problems or concerns to a supervisor, the program assistant has had to learn to be assertive and to ask directly for what she needs. Additionally, the traditional Extension staff has had to learn to listen jclosely for these kinds of messages and to talk through them, as well as develop patience thought this process.

One thing the two counties have in common is the digital divide. The Onslow County Family Resource Center has established a large computer lab at the Extension Center and offers training in computer use of the Internet to assist their children’s educational success.

Lessons learned in the first three years? Firstly, hire the right person. “Never underestimate the importance of staff – you must have someone who knows the community and who cares,” Roper said. When the program director in Swain County retired suddenly due to health concerns early in the life of the grant, it took four months to replace her. That seemed a prolonged disaster at the time, but four months was more than worth it to find the right person, Roper said. Hiring from within the community served is an opportunity to forge trust, she added.

Secondly, Roper advised other program directors not to be afraid to change course when things don’t work out as planned. North Carolina's original CYFAR plan was to have a secondary site in Swain County, but the collaboration never gelled, and was ultimately downgraded to a casual working relationship. “Be flexible,” Roper said. “Recognizing when something is not working out is not a failure. It’s a success when you recognize that, and move on.”

You may wish to consult:

CYFAR Projects State Report: North Carolina

See previous Program Spotlight articles