Programs-Family Resource Center

Family Resource Center:
Providing Services and Support to Formerly Homeless Families

The Family Resource Center builds on The Partnership’s 21-year record of successfully helping to break the cycle of homelessness and poverty, providing critical services and support to ensure that families remain housed and move toward self-sufficiency.

Each month 1,000 children enter the city's emergency housing system. Today, over 9,000 families with 17,000 children reside temporarily in family shelters, an all-time high. The scarcity of affordable housing, combined with the city’s failure to invest effectively in the well-being of children and young people, will result in even greater increases in the future.

Building on 17 years of working with families in Project Domicile, The Partnership’s Family Resource Center provides an easily accessible, one-stop service hub for families leaving the Tier II family shelters for permanent housing in Brooklyn, a model that we hope to expand to other boroughs in the future.

The Center is staffed by a social worker, case managers, employment counselor, and attorney, all of whom deliver services to families, based on their individual needs. Many of these families have never lived in their own home and easily feel defeated by everyday frustrations. Most families need immediate assistance to stabilize benefits, deal with negligent landlords, and understand workfare requirements. The staff also helps families connect with vital community-based services, such as health care, child care, public schools, and food pantries, and accompanies clients to referrals as needed.

The Family Resource Center helps parents move toward economic independence through Next Step, our Workforce Development project that prepares parents to enter the workforce through counseling, referral to education and job training programs, independent living skills training, soft skills training, and job search assistance.

The Education Rights Project addresses the educational needs of homeless children by minimizing disruption in education, helping parents know their rights and make sound decisions, and ensuring that children receive appropriate services.

Homeless Families: A Profile

Ninety-seven percent of homeless families are headed by single women of African-American, Caribbean-American or Latino heritage. Less than half of these mothers are high school graduates, and some 22% were in foster care as children. Close to half have been victims of domestic abuse. Almost 40% of the children in shelters suffer from asthma, and the rate of HIV infection among homeless women is three times the citywide average.

The Family Resource Center, which serves 300 families a year, reaches out to families when they come to Furnish a Future, The Partnership’s successful and well-known free furniture and household-items bank for formerly homeless families and individuals transitioning to permanent housing.