Families will benefit from $1.9 million in funding to pilot resource centers in six locations around Michigan that will help prevent child abuse and neglect.
Children Trust Michigan and the Children’s Services Agency, both within the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS), will fund the family resource center initiative.
“We congratulate the six community-based family resource centers and thank them for their commitment to the children and families in their communities,” said Suzanne Greenberg, Children Trust Michigan executive director. “We will work closely with them to build protective factors for children and families that will make safe and healthy childhoods possible for Michigan’s children.”
Children Trust Michigan is Michigan’s agency solely focused on child abuse and neglect prevention and is within MDHHS.
The six founding pilot sites are:
• Baraga/Houghton/Keweenaw Counties – Keweenaw Family Resource Center.
• Calhoun County – Help Me Grow Family Resource Center.
• Genesee County – Voices for Children.
• Kent County – Family Futures.
• Macomb County – Care House.
• Washtenaw County – SOS Community Services.
Family resource centers are community-based resource hubs where people and families can access formal and informal supports to promote their health and well-being. While family resource centers have many things in common, they are designed to reflect and be responsive to community needs and interests. They build parenting skills, connect families to resources and develop parent and community leadership.
Children Trust Michigan chose the pilot locations based on populations who experience overrepresentation in the child welfare system, high poverty rates, or lack of access to health, behavioral, and social services. There were also selected based on geographic diversity. The decision came after service providers answered a survey intended to assess their interest in establishing a family resource center and joining the Mi-FRC Network that Children Trust Michigan created.
With the newly funded initiatives, combined with other multi?year grant commitments and the statewide network of local councils, Children Trust Michigan has distributed more than $2.6 million in 2022. Each dollar is invested in local community-based programs to support child abuse prevention programs across Michigan’s 83 counties. Visit Michigan.gov/ChildrenTrustMichigan for additional information.
