Like many parents of children attending Taft Elementary School in Redwood City, Laura Jiménez (not her real name) struggles to make ends meet. Mother of three children—including first-grader Gloria (also not her real name), a four-year-old son, and a five-month-old daughter—she works the graveyard shift stocking grocery shelves and cares for her children during the day. “It’s too much stress,” she says. “I don’t get enough sleep.”

When she learned that Gloria was having difficulty in class, Jimén-ez sought help from Taft’s mental health specialist, a San Mateo County employee stationed at the Taft Family Center, a school-based family resource center (FRC).

Gloria now sees the specialist, Connie Alonzo-Frisz, once a week for group therapy. Alonzo-Frisz also observes Gloria in class and talks with her teacher about managing her behavior and helping her focus. Jiménez meets with Alonzo-Frisz for advice on how to help her daughter and manage her own stress. With the specialist’s encouragement, Jiménez saw her doctor, who prescribed medication and therapy for stress and depression.

Now Jiménez is getting involved with her daughter’s schoolwork and communicating with her teacher. “I’m always asking her, what is she doing in class? Does she like it?” says Jiménez. “I listen to her and sit down with her doing homework. I never did that before because I’m always busy.”

But now, she says, “I told my boyfriend I really need help!” So he cares for the younger children while she works with her daughter.

The support for Jiménez and Gloria is paying off. “My daughter has improved,” says Jiménez. “She’s learning about reading. She’s more enthusiastic. Now, when I check her papers, sometimes it says, ‘Excellent job!’”

Family support = academic progress

One of four Redwood City Family Centers (RCFC), Taft Family Center is operated as a collaborative between RCSD, city, county, and non-profits such as Peninsula Conflict Resolution Center, Children's Place, and Youth and Family Enrichment Services. Taft Family Center offers students and family members on-site counseling, classes, leadership opportunities, home-visiting, and links to services—all with the goal of promoting students’ school success. “We had a lot of children coming to school with basic survival needs,” recalls Rosemarie Perez, a teacher who helped write the 1992 Healthy Start grant that initiated the family centers.

“Without their basic needs met—food, clothing, rent, emotional support—it is very difficult for a child to learn,” says Taft Principal Michelle Griffith. The family center helps with “all those things that are needed for the child to succeed in school”—attendance, mental health, nutrition, parenting skills.

Now, “you can feel the school coming together,” enthuses Griffith. Annual evaluations of student progress show steady improvement. For example, be-tween the 2001-02 and 2002-03 school years, the number of students rated as “far below basic” in language arts went down from 42 to 30 percent, while the number at the “basic” level increased from 20 to 31 percent. Over the past three years, Taft’s Academic Perfor-mance Index increased 150 points.

In addition, attendance has increased to 95 percent and “parent participation is huge!” says Griffith. The family center, she says, is a “vital component to our school getting on the right track.”

Meeting needs, building trust

Meeting student and family needs “is a partnership between the school and the family center,” says Mirna Bonilla, site coordinator for Taft Family Center. The teachers refer kids to FRC staff if they observe problems. The Family Center “can get closer to families—they have contact at a different level,” says Perez.

One teacher recently referred a child to the family center when she noticed that he seemed withdrawn and worried, and his clothing didn’t seem to fit anymore. Through a local nonprofit, Bonilla provided new school uniforms. “We address the basic needs first,” she says. Then the mental health specialist observed him and referred him for counseling. When he revealed he was worried because the family didn’t have enough food, “we called to talk to the mom—we know the family,” Bonilla says. When the mom said her husband had lost his job, “We started brainstorming with her about where to connect with other resources,” says Bonilla, and the family hung on until the husband got another job.

When children feel that “it’s safe to say, ‘I don’t have this,’ it makes them want to come to school,” says Bonilla. The same is true for parents. Now, Jiménez says, “I can go to school and say, ‘I need help. I need advice. I don’t know what to do.’”

Keys to success

• Weekly team meetings, which include the family center site coordinator, vice principal, mental health specialist, and benefits analyst, help meet the family’s needs on many levels.

• Teachers and family center staff support each other. The counselor “can give me recommendations,” says teacher Rosemarie Perez, “and I can say, ‘This is what works for him [in the classroom].’”

• Parent Involvement and Leadership Facilitators (PILFs) offer translation at parent-teacher conferences and school events, says Karin Kelley-Torregroza, director of RCFC. They also coach parents on bringing concerns to teachers, administrators, and even the school board.

• Monthly coffees with parents and the principal allow parents to bring questions, concerns, and ideas. “It’s their meeting,” says Griffith. “I’m there to listen to them. If parents have concerns, they can feel more comfortable bringing them to me. And when we need to reach out to them for support, they’re more willing to work with us.”

• The school’s leadership and Family Center staff work together. Principal Griffith’s advice: “Do the planning together, instead of saying, ‘We’re doing this, and oh, by the way, can you come?’”

• Public and private agencies collaborate so families can access comprehensive services in their neighborhood schools, rather than traveling downtown.

Redwood City Family Centers: 650-569-3868

The research shows:

Family support programs improved children’s cognitive, social, and emotional development and school performance, according to a national survey of research reports on 260 family support programs. (Abt Associates)

In several studies that followed family support program participants over a period of years, children in participating families scored better than comparison groups in measures of language development, reading, school attendance, social adjustment, and intelligence for up to 10 years, according to a review of six family support studies. (Edna Comer and Mark Fraser)

Parent involvement and support for education is a better predictor of student achievement than income or social status. (Research review by San Diego County Office of Education)

What is an FRC?

The family resource center (FRC), part of an innovative strategy to promote healthy families and communities, is a warm and welcoming community hub that engages families in a variety of programs and activities that build on their strengths and meet basic needs. FRCs respond to what the community says it needs and often work in partnership with other community agencies.