FAMILY RESOURCE CENTER OPENS DOORS IN SOUTH CAPE

Sharland Reed is ready to officially open the doors of the Cape Area Family Resource Center and start delivering needed services to the neighborhoods in South Cape Girardeau.

The Family Resource Center, 1000 S. Sprigg St., will officially open today with an open house from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

"The Family Resource Center is a centralized facility that is easily accessible to the people in South Cape," said Reed, executive director of the facility that grew out of a Community Caring Council task force formed in 1995. "We hope to become a co-location for many of the services offered in Cape so those services will be more accessible to the people who need them."

The open house will allow residents of South Cape Girardeau to see what the Family Resource Center has to offer. This will include after-school activities, parenting education classes, health education, screenings and referral, computer literacy training, services for senior citizens, social services and support services.

Just as importantly, it will be a chance to show off the facility to social-services agencies throughout the community that may want to partner with the center.

"We're not trying to reinvent the wheel with all new programs," Reed said. "Instead we want to work with services that already exist and offer them a facility where they can reach the people who need those services."

Lining one wall of the center are three cubicles, each with a desk, phone and several chairs, that social-services agencies could use to meet with clients. Reed said she hopes to soon be able to set up a schedule of who would be at the center at what times to work on which needs.

"The idea is to bring the services out into the community ," Reed said. "It makes sense for service providers who have transportation to go out into the community to serve people with no transportation and several children."

Several programs are already in place at the center, including an after-school program that already has a daily attendance of seven to 10 children, Reed said.

"We haven't even advertised. The ones who come now are just neighborhood children who knocked on the door wondering what was going on in here," Reed said.

What the children found was an area with four new computers with educational software that spans the gamut from preschool to SAT preparation, tables and chairs where they can do their homework and volunteers to help with homework and the computers.

"The children love it," said Reed.

The center will be open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and other hours by appointment or to accommodate programs. For instance, since mid-April Caring Communities has been using the center on Tuesday evenings for computer literacy classes for adults.

Several other agencies are partnering with the center. Educare and the University of Missouri Extension Service are both planning to offer parenting education classes. The center is a site for a ParentLink Parenting Corner, which features free information about parenting.

St. Francis Medical Center will offer health education and health screenings. Those whose screenings reveal potential problems will be referred to Cross Trails Medical Clinic.