Cape Area Family Resource Center to close in mid-July

The neighborhood services center that has in many ways served as the center of South Cape, touching the lives of infants to the elderly, will shut down its programs by mid-July.

With funding sources tapped out and the loss of a critical grant, Cape Area Family Resource Center has run out of options, officials from the not-for-profit say.

"We have no funding. It's gone," said Pat King, the resource center's interim executive director, noting a three-year state grant that once provided as much as $50,000 a year dried up a couple of years ago. "That was it. We tried everything to find funding, but it's not worked out for us."

In a news release, the organization's board of directors said it "made this difficult decision after efforts to raise local support funds [have] fallen short of expenses for further operation."

Board member Kevin Sexton said finding the cash to operate the worn center at 1202 S. Sprigg St. was a challenge the organization could not overcome. The three-level property isn't accessible to the disabled, and bringing it up to Americans with Disabilities Act standards would cost about $100,000, Sexton said. The cost of utilities alone runs about $1,000 a month, he said.

Former director and board member Denise Lincoln said the building, an old church built in 1941, has been both a blessing and a bane.

"We're not able to keep up with the deterioration of the building," she said. "It's a losing battle. We've pulled out the white flag, very sadly and reluctantly."

In early 2008, the center faced closure after a fire marshal found problems with the property. A day care license struggle with the state ensued until the center was deemed a national youth services program, like the Boys and Girls Club, and received a license exemption.

The resource center has served hundreds of children and adults, families and neighborhoods on the south side over its 14 years in operation. King said its core mission always has been education, from the Tiny Toes program for caregivers of children 2 and younger to the Senior Lunch & Learn initiative. The center's afterschool program serves 23 low-income children a day in an effort that many say has helped keep students in school.

"My mission is to keep them graduating," King said, adding that she thinks a deeper decline in Cape Girardeau graduation rates will occur if South Cape loses the program.

"Most of my parents are single working parents. If no one is there to help with homework, kids don't do it," King said. "A lot of them fake their way through until the fourth grade until they realize they don't know anything, then they give up."

The Cape Girardeau School District is engaged in a campaign to boost high school graduation rates to 90 percent in the next couple of years. In 2010, the rate was 78.4 percent, according to revised statistics.

On Tuesday, the second day of the center's popular summer day camp, the program was filled to capacity, at 50 children, with a long waiting list. At least for now, the five-week session will be the family resource center's last camp.

Programs over the years have been underwritten by large not-for-profits like the United Way and through private contributions. But the center, like the low-income neighborhoods it serves, has long lived on the margins.

Sexton said the board wants to make sure the programming continues in one form or fashion, more than likely through other service agencies and organizations, particularly the Shawnee Park Center, the city's new recreational facility that recently opened in South Cape.

"Several agencies have shown an interest in doing that in the Cape area," Sexton said. "What the plan is, is to hopefully find someone to step up and fill the gap."

For now, advocates of the program want to look back and celebrate the family resource center's accomplishments.

A community celebration will take place at 6 p.m. June 21, at the center. The event will review and celebrate 14 years of programs in the South Cape neighborhood, according to the news release.

mkittle@semissourian.com

388-3626

Pertinent address:

1202 S. Sprigg St., Cape Girardeau, MO