Family Support Center Overview

The Family Support Centers provide free, comprehensive services, either on-site or through referral, to families, targeting parents and their children from birth through age three. The Centers:

• Promote the optimal development of young children through the provision of parent/child activities and a wide range of child development services;
•  Assist parents to develop more effective parenting skills and fulfill their aims related to school, employment and family life;
•  Provide supportive networks among parents in local communities; and
•  Connect parents and their children to public and private agencies and informal community resources that can help them.

Funding for the network of Family Support Centers comes from the Maryland State Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, private foundations, corporations, and individuals.

The following core services are offered at Family Support Centers:

Infant/toddler program: developmental infant toddler care/assessment;
Parent education;
Self-sufficiency programming: adult education/family literacy and job readiness;
Health education and referral for services;
Peer support;
Service coordination; and
Outreach, collaboration, and resource development.

Early Head Start

Since 1995, Friends of the Family has added seven Early Head Start (EHS) programs to Maryland's Family Support Center network in five counties and Baltimore City. These programs strengthen the state's developing early childhood support system, raising Maryland's profile nationally in the process.

Today, the seven EHS-funded Family Support Centers represent an investment of more than $2.7 million annually in federal funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). They serve 248 children under the age of three and their families, making Friends of the Family the largest EHS grantee in Maryland and one of the largest in the nation.

Profile of growth - Our first two Early Head Start programs got underway in 1996. Collaborating with the Caroline County Board of Education and the Kennedy Krieger Family Center, Friends of the Family was awarded funding to establish and operate (EHS) programs in Denton and the Canton neighborhood of Baltimore City. Five other EHS programs have been added to Maryland's Family Support Center network since then. In each case, we partner with a local, direct service provider in:

Southern Anne Arundel County, with Anne Arundel County Economic Opportunity Committee
Elkton in Cecil County, through Cecil College
Federalsburg in Caroline County, through Caroline County Board of Education
Easton in Talbot County, through Talbot County Health Department
Cambridge in Dorchester County, through SHORE UP!, Inc..

For information on Early Head Start funding, click here.