THE FAMILY LEARNING CENTER: CELEBRATING 10 YEARS OF EDUCATING THE COMMUNITY AND MAKING FAMILIES STRONGER

For the past decade the Family Learning Center has provided a safe haven for Cape Girardeau's children.

Many of its young clients are victims of abuse, neglect, or are members of families struggling to stay together. In the Family Learning Center's home-like setting, children learn the skills they need to survive.

This month the Family Learning Center is celebrating its 10th anniversary during National Child Abuse Prevention Month.

In one decade, from 1979 to 1989, reports of child abuse and neglect soared 150 percent nationally, said Rondi Rork, clinical therapist at Community Counseling Center.

"It's not happening more," said Rork. "Now, people are more aware of the need to report. The laws have gotten better and there is better education for folks who work with kids."

But the problem is far from being solved, she said. Two-and-a-half million reports of child abuse and neglect are made each year in the United States. In Missouri, 17,000 reports were made in 1989; 200 of those came from Cape Girardeau County.

"And that's not all the cases," Rork said. "Some experts say the number of actual cases is five-to-10 times that number."

The Family Learning Center program is among programs trying to stop the cycle of abuse. It started with goals of educating the community about the problem and helping families become stronger. A decade later, the Family Learning Center is still dedicated to those goals. About 120 families are served each year by the center.

Susan Ritter, coordinator of children's evaluation services at the Community Counseling Center, initiated the program.

"When we founded the Family Learning Center 10 years ago, people said things like they didn't think we really had that kind of problem here and did we really think we would have anyone come to see us?" Ritter said. "It's been a big community-education program: we want to stop the next generation from emerging."

Ida Domazlicky, program director and educational therapist, said, "The concept is that parents and children both have learning to do if a family is to survive."

Children ages 2 to 5 years attend a half-day preschool at the Family Learning Center.

"On the surface it looks like a regular preschool," said Domazlicky. "But what we're really teaching them, besides colors and animals, are self-esteem and how to make good decisions for themselves."

The children also learn social skills like taking turns and sharing.

"We also teach them to survive," Domazlicky said. For some children in the middle of family turmoil, the Family Learning Center is the one stable element.

"For those children, our primary purpose is to provide a secure base," Ritter said.

Ritter said the center is very careful not to take on the role of parent. Instead, parents learn about their children and themselves.

Said Domazlicky: "Even if they have good parenting skills and they just have a difficult child, parents need to be aware of the changes going on. The children are learning new things and new ways of behaving. Parents have to know what's going on."

Domazlicky said, "We don't aim to keep the children here."

Ritter said: "Even as nice as the center may be, it's an institution. These kids still have got to go home."

Some leave the program as early as six weeks.

The therapists cautioned that the Family Learning Center is not a panacea for the community's problems of abuse and neglect.

"Successes are subtle," said Ritter. "This program is not a great miracle worker."

Domazlicky said, "At this stage of growing up children are changing rapidly." She said: "They respond. In most cases we see dramatic changes in a short period of time with the kids and often with the families as well."

Ritter said the concept for the center came about when she was working at WISER, a women's center and safe house that operated in Cape Girardeau.

"I saw so many kids who did receive shelter but needed therapy," she said. "I kept driving by a building on Broadway (605 Broadway) and thinking how neat it would be to have a place just for kids."

Michael Stausing, clinical director of what formerly was the St. Francis Mental Health Center, offered Ritter office space to begin planning for her project.

"Then, in a pretty radical move, four of us sat down and decided we were going to do this," Ritter said. As people learned about Ritter's idea, the group of supporters grew.

"A lot of us viewed this as a community mission to prevent child abuse from happening," she said. "Parents could come and learn to work with their kids and we could provide a positive focus for them. It was an exciting time.

The center opened its doors with a staff of two, and programs gradually grew. In 1987, the center moved to a new location at 805 S. Sprigg.

In 1989, the Family Learning Center merged with the Community Counseling Center. Directors of the Family Learning Center at that time believed too large a portion of the center's budget was spent on administrative costs. By joining with the Community Counseling Center, the board believed funds would be better spent.

The center remains in operation at 805 S. Sprigg but will be joining a new Community Counseling Center building, which is scheduled to be built by the first of the year.

The new center will have "a little less homey atmosphere," Ritter said. But the building will be larger, accessible by handicapped people, and will include the possibility for growth, she said.

But the heart of the Family Learning Center will remain the same, the therapists said. "We want to develop strong, healthy kids," said Domazlicky.