Lessons Learned from Strengthening and Expanding Texas’ Family Resource Centers

Introduction

St. David’s Foundation’s vision is a vibrant and inclusive community in which every individual can flourish and reach their full potential.  Realizing this vision will require developing mechanisms and resources to equip communities to achieve their own priorities.  Family Resource Centers (FRCs) offer infrastructure to support families and communities to realize this vision. By centering community needs, priorities, and voices, FRCs take a strengths-based approach to ensure families can thrive.  In 2022, the Foundation partnered with Texas Center for Child and Family Studies to bring cross-sector stakeholders together to explore how the Family Resources Center model could best be used to strengthen Central Texas families and communities. This exploration of FRCs bridged the Foundation’s prior strategic priority area of Resilient Children, which was a core focus area when this project was launched, and the Foundation’s new strategic plan, with goals around economic security and equipping communities to achieve their own health priorities.  

What is an FRC and How Does the Model Impact Families and Communities 

A Family Resource Center is a community or school-based welcoming hub of services and opportunities designed to strengthen families and communities. FRCs provide activities and programs developed to reflect and respond to specific needs, cultures, and interests of the communities and populations served. The services offered by a FRC vary depending on community input, but typically include parenting support, resource navigation, child development activities, and parent leadership development.   

FRCs empower communities to achieve a broad array of goals at the child, family, and community level, including school readiness for children, improved health outcomes and increased economic security for families, reduced child welfare involvement, and enhanced civic engagement for communities. Using a strengths-based, multi-generational, and family-centered approach; FRCs partner with families and communities to create pathways for connection, stability, and well-being.    

St. David’s Foundation Family Resource Center Advisory Committee 

St. David’s Foundation and the Texas Center for Child and Family Studies (the “Center”) collaborated in 2022-23 to explore how to most effectively harness the potential of the FRC model to advance health equity and improve child and family well-being. The Foundation and the Center convened a regional Advisory Committee and visited Family Resource Centers in California and Colorado to learn more about strengthening communities in partnership with families. Below are key observations and feedback from the Advisory Committee and the Center’s research: 

• FRCs are a proven public health method to prevent Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) that serves as a pathway to a larger system of support.  

• FRCs center family voice and parent leadership to design and build activities and programs. 

• FRCs are adaptive and flexible and exist in communities in the form in which they are needed.  

• FRCs’ outreach is intentional and focuses on building trust and relationship building. 

• FRCs need to reflect the communities they serve with staff that look like the families being served and offer accessible communications and cultural sensitivity.  

• FRCs embrace an asset development approach to positive community change by leveraging community strengths and authentic community engagement to address needs. 

• The Standards of Quality for Strengthening and Supporting Families from the National Family Support Network give FRCs the tools and skills they need to integrate and operationalize best practices.  

Moving Forward 

The research conducted by the Center and input received from the Advisory Committee affirmed the potential of the FRC model to strengthen the well-being of families and communities.  Importantly, the input also emphasized the need to go slow to go fast, noting that realizing the potential of the FRC model is more likely effective when a strong network to support the work is built early. States and regions that have achieved success with the FRC model have established FRC networks that connect individual FRCs to peers, ensure quality and alignment with other local and state child well-being efforts, and provide support and technical assistance to FRCs in critical areas, such as effectively using strengths-based, multi-generational, and family-centered approaches.    

In response to this input, St. David’s Foundation provided funding to the Texas Center for Child and Family Studies in 2024 to strengthen the Texas Family Support Network, with a specific focus on providing technical assistance aligned with the National Quality Standards and their guidance on ensuring community voice and parent leadership as a critical components of the FRC model.