Cape's Family Resource Center needs to find money to replace state grant

The Cape Girardeau Family Resource Center, a second home for some south-side youths and their families, is facing a June closure if its board of directors can't replace $50,000 once granted to them by the Missouri Department of Social Services.

The state funding, which is around half of the center's yearly operating budget, came to an end this year. The state's contribution was intended to be seed money, said board member Denise Lincoln. Once the center was an established not-for-profit, the funding was expected to be replaced with monetary donations from the community.

"We've received our last payment that we'll probably ever see from the state," Lincoln said. "With state revenues, even if we went back and begged, there just wouldn't be negotiable dollars anymore."

Although the family resource center receives grant dollars from the United Way of Southeast Missouri, the funding is specifically intended to be used for the programs the center offers.

"But you can't have the programs without the place," Lincoln said.

Twelve-year-old Collin Tipler from Cape Central Midle School, left, takes a break from his social studies homework Thursday to help 9-year-old Damaron Andrews from Jefferson Elementary with his homework at the Family Resource Center's after-school program. (LAURA SIMON)

For two hours in the afternoon Monday through Thursday, around 25 children get off their respective buses and head to the center for what Pat King, the center's director, calls a structured afternoon. They aren't just at the center to socialize with their friends, she said, they're in a safe haven designed to keep them learning.

"We have to get these kids off the streets. The corners are calling them and the kids are listening at a very young age," King said. "So we have to keep programs in place that keep them more on a track to learn and not attracted to the corner."

An area teacher, who volunteers to come to the center to teach math every other Wednesday, keeps the children excited, offering them additional time for learning. Lincoln said this is not the case for many of the youths, who if they were to go home right after school may not get the encouragement they need to do their homework.

"A lot of research shows that kids in poverty, just because they're poor, doesn't mean they can't do well in school," Lincoln said. "They don't have the same out-of-school opportunities that other kids in other social and economic classes have. This is an attempted to narrow those gaps."

The center not only aims to support youths, but also strives to engage their parents. Staff at the family resource center believe it's important to build relationships with the parents, some of whom are single and raising their child on their own. When they can, center staff offer workshops for the parents on how to build stronger families.

"Our goal is to help parents know they're encouraged in their hard role," Lincoln said.

If the center were to close in June, it would not only impact youths and their parents, but the senior population as well. Each Thursday afternoon, seniors are invited to the center to share information with other seniors and to enjoy a meal together. Seniors age 60 and older can also participate in a commodity food program once a month.

"We try to encompass something for everybody in the community to attend," King said.

While not all members of the board of directors are completely comfortable with asking individuals or organizations to consider making a monetary donation to keep the center open, they're realizing now they need to be a little bolder. Now is the time for the community to come forward and help if they want to, Lincoln said.

"We're good people and we just want to believe that good people will give money to other good people, but we know it doesn't happen that way," Lincoln said. "There is a lot of compassion in this community to give kids a chance."

ehevern@semissourian.com

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