2010 Capacity-Building Awardees

NFI is pleased to announce the 2010 Capacity-Building Awardees. To view information about each awardee, click on the link below.

Awardee Narratives

Becoming Parents Program, Inc.
Seattle, WA

Becoming Parents Program, Inc. (BPP, Inc.) is a Seattle-based organization established by nurses to translate research-based interventions into practical tools and skills for expectant and new parents. At BPP, Inc., we believe that the relationship between parents—the “couple relationship”—forms the nest in which children will grow. The strength of that nest has a profound affect on the health and well-being of children. As such, we prepare couples for the challenges of new parenthood by providing a comprehensive program that includes research-based relationship skills, anticipatory guidance, and research data on infant communication, growth and development. Our goal is to equip couples for strong relationships and confident parenting, fostering children’s ability to thrive.

Dr. Pamela Jordan, PhD, RN, University of Washington professor and nurse researcher has been studying the transition to parenthood, with particular focus on fatherhood, for the past 30 years. In the early nineties, she developed the Becoming Parents Program curriculum by combining her research with research from relationship, infant, and communication scholars. The curriculum focuses on reducing the predictable challenges of new parenthood by strengthening the couple’s resilience, promoting self-care and community support, and bringing research about infant communication and development directly to parents. We provide direct services to a wide range of couples and we train others to offer our program as well. BPP Staff includes professional nurses, certified childbirth educators, lactation consultants, social workers, doulas, child development specialists, labor and delivery nurses, and maternal and infant mental health specialists. Together, we have served thousands of couples, committing to our children by committing to each other.

Please visit us online at www.becomingparents.com .

Child & Family Services of the Upper Peninsula | Back to Top |
Marquette, MI

Child & Family Services of the Upper Peninsula, Inc., (CFSUP) is a private, non-profit, non-sectarian agency that has been serving Michigan’s Upper Peninsula for 90 years. Working collaboratively with local agencies—including the Department of Human Services, community mental health agencies, health departments, substance abuse treatment providers, hospitals, prosecutors, the courts and the school systems—CFSUP offers child welfare services, homelessness prevention programs, community services and in-home services throughout the Upper Peninsula’s 15 counties.

Please visit us online at www.cfsup.org.

Clinical Outcomes Group, Inc. | Back to Top |
Pottsville, PA

Clinical Outcomes Group Inc., (COGI) is a 501c3 nonprofit organization located in Pottsville and Northumberland, Pennsylvania. COGI is dedicated to improving the health of communities we serve through the provision of accessible, effective, and affordable health and social services. Through partnerships with other nonprofits, the business sector, and governmental entities, and local communities, we strive to understand quality of life issues and meet individual’s needs through innovative programming. We provide workplace wellness programming, tobacco prevention and cessation activities, substance abuse counseling, and intervention and prevention programs for individuals involved in domestic violence.

Please visit us online at www.COGInc.org.

Community Action, Inc. | Back to Top |
Janesville, WI

Community Action of Rock & Walworth Counties provides access and opportunities for those we serve and those who support our efforts. Through innovative programs and strong community partnerships we eliminate barriers, establishing clear pathways to economic self-reliance. Five separate program departments deliver the community outcomes of our work: Employment & Training, Family & Community Services, Women’s Health Services, Child Development, and Housing & Energy.

The focus of Community Action is to prevent and reduce poverty in our local communities. Through a board structure that includes government, private business and low-income consumers, we develop local solutions to local problems and invest more resources to fight poverty in Rock and Walworth counties than any other not-for-profit organization. Our resources are invested in programs that create opportunities for individuals and families to help themselves achieve a better life.

Please visit us online at www.community-action.org.

Creciendo Unidos/Growing Together | Back to Top |
Phoenix, AZ

Creciendo Unidos, which means "Growing Together" in Spanish, is a small, Latino-led nonprofit that has been quietly expanding in the Phoenix metropolitan area since 1997. That mission of Creciendo Unidos (CU) is to build communities by enabling people to take care of each other, mobilizing neighborhoods, developing leaders, and taking responsibility for creating a healthy community that is worthy of their children. The vision is met by focusing attention on the family unit.

CU's culturally sensitive programs powerfully impact Hispanic families in need. All of our programs target Spanish speaking families that are low income and are often culturally disenfranchised. Families come from all over Maricopa County and include single parent families, both parents, blended families and families with minimal support resources. CU helps families identify the issues that are holding them back and provides them with individualized and age-appropriate tools to make changes they want to make.

Please visit us online at www.creciendounidosaz.org.

Cuyahoga County Fatherhood Initiative | Back to Top |
Cleveland, OH

The Cuyahoga County Fatherhood Initiative seeks to strengthen families in our community by encouraging fathers to play a more active role in nurturing and raising their children. The Fatherhood Initiative responds to the social concerns regarding "father absence" by providing fathers with services to prepare them to meet the psychological and financial needs of their children. The CCFI also seeks to increase public awareness of the importance of father involvement.The Initiative has four primary goals.

Promote the public awareness of the importance of the role of fathers.
Improve our current county service delivery to fathers and provide linkages to other public systems.
Fund fatherhood related programs on the county level.
Hold an annual conference to promote healthy father-child relationships.

The mission of the CCFI is to significantly increase the number of children in the county that grow up with a responsible father involved in their lives.

Please visit us online at www.fatherhoodinitiative.cuyahogacounty.us.

Family Central, Inc. | Back to Top |
North Lauderdale, FL

Family Central, Inc. is a comprehensive, not-for-profit, family support and early care and education organization that has been offering specialized services and programs to help give South Florida children a competitive start in life for nearly forty-years. Family Central© programs are directed primarily toward economically disadvantaged families living in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade Counties in Florida. Family Central serves over 100,000 children and families annually.

Please visit us online at www.familycentral.org.

Fatherhood Initiative of Polk County | Back to Top |
Des Moines, IA

The Fatherhood Initiative Program of Polk County is a project of the YMCA of Greater Des Moines with assistance from the Child Support Recovery Unit of Iowa. The program served the re-entry population as well as the teen dads in some area high schools. Since that time we have expanded to reach out to fathers being deployed in the military as well as dads involved in the child welfare system. This is the third year of the initiative and we continue to grow in numbers. The Fatherhood Initiative offers weekly classes which break down the barriers preventing these men from developing close, positive, and meaningful relationships with their children and the mother of their children.

Fresno County Healthy Marriage Coalition, Inc. | Back to Top |
Fresno, CA

The Fresno County Healthy Marriage Coalition exists to prepare and strengthen marriages and families in Central California through Marriage and Relationship Education Programs. The Coalition serves across geo-cultural areas to provide healthy skills classes for high school students, singles, single parents, cohabiting, engaged and married couples. The goal is to help individuals and couples to form and sustain healthy relationships in order to build healthy and vibrant communities. Classes are taught in English, Spanish, Hmong, Mandarin and Cantonese. The Coalition is one of the partnering organizations of the California Healthy Marriages Coalition

Please visit us online at www.growyourmarriage.com.

House of Pride | Back to Top |
Dover, DE

The House of Pride Inc. (HOP) is a one year residential drug and alcohol recovery program for men 18 years and older. We provide comprehensive peer-to-peer substance abuse support to augment the formal therapy residents receive. The House of Pride’s recovery environment offers a continuity of care which provides a physical, psychological and emotional safe environment to develop their newly learned pro-social and recovery skills. Additionally, as men transition through our program, we assist them in family reunification to establish or rebuild relationships with their children both emotionally and economically. The ultimate goal is to provide men with the necessary tools to be successful as men, fathers and citizens in their respective communities.

For more information, please contact us at (302)677-0116.

Human Resources Agency of New Britain, Inc. | Back to Top |
New Britain, CT

Human Resources Agency of New Britain, Inc. (HRA) is a non-profit, multi-service community action agency dedicated to increasing economic self-sufficiency since 1964. HRA administers over 30 effective, community-based programs and services that reach more than 16,000 people each year. The target population includes residents of New Britain, CT while some programs serve people from neighboring towns, and others operate in other regions. HRA’s programs serve a wide variety of people ranging from preschool-aged children from low-income families to senior citizens, people of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds as well as people confronting a one-time crisis or ongoing, complex life situations.

HRA is launching a pilot project that will strengthen the link between HRA’s Head Start/School Readiness, Day Care and Youth Employment Services programs by integrating a fatherhood component in its job skills training and job placement programs. This will require a cultural change; capacity expansion, an infusion of father-friendly principles and practices into existing systems; and the establishment of a social policy agenda.

Please visit us online at www.hranbct.org.

Kansas City Community Center | Back to Top |
Kansas City, MO

The Kansas City Community Center (KCCC) is a not for profit organization founded in 1982 by a number of individuals in recovery. KCCC provides halfway house services for individuals being released from either State or Federal prisons as well as substance abuse treatment services in a number Missouri penitentiaries. Institutional based substance abuse treatment services run the gamut of general group education classes through total Therapeutic Communities. KCCC also provides substance abuse treatment services for community residents. Depending on the funding source (either the Missouri Department of Corrections or the Missouri Department of Mental Health), these services are available to the general public or are restricted to individuals under probation/parole supervision.

Please visit us online at www.kccommunityctr.org.

Las Cumbres Community Services, Inc. | Back to Top |
Espanola, NM

Las Cumbres Community Services is a private, 501(c)(3) non-profit agency that promotes the health and well-being of people of all ages in northern New Mexico. The mission of Las Cumbres is to provide quality services, public awareness, and integrated community supports for children, adults, and families facing social, emotional, and/or developmental challenges.

Agency direct services benefit more than 8,000 individuals each year through a wide range of programs in four major areas of emphasis:

Child and Family Services, offering early intervention for children ages birth to three with developmental disabilities/delays, a therapeutic preschool, and a variety of childhood behavioral health services including infant mental health, play therapy, family therapy, co-parenting/couples counseling, behavioral respite, case management, safe exchange/supervised visitation, and both individual and group therapy for parents;
Adult Services, providing residential, employment, day habilitation and community integration support for individuals with developmental disabilities;
Respite and Personal Care, offering support for families of children and adults with disabilities;
Early Childhood Mental Health Training Institute, a two-year certificate program that provides multidisciplinary training to early childhood providers across the state.

All Las Cumbres programs are operated on the belief that services should be easily accessible, consumer driven, relationship based, culturally appropriate, and built on individual strengths and natural supports in order to best meet the needs of each individual served. Many of the agency’s programs are recognized as models for innovative, effective and prevention-based approaches to enhancing human potential and development. Las Cumbres serves a very large, rugged and culturally diverse region covering 6,000 square miles, where most residents live in rural communities that lack access to specialized health resources.

Please visit us online at www.lascumbres-nm.org.

Marriage Resource Center of Carroll County | Back to Top |
Westminster, MD

The mission of the Marriage Resource Center of Carroll County (MRC) is to strengthen marriages and families through relationship education and community partnerships. MRC, a 50l (c)(3) faith-based organization established in 2004, is on the front line of a growing national “marriage movement” offering research-based skills programs and services which build healthy marriages and encourage responsible fathering - proactive measures to help counter father absence and weak father-child relationships.

MRC is committed to helping men and women form stable healthy marriages and will mobilize the community to create a paradigm shift on the measurable benefits of being married and staying married, for adult and child well-being.

In 2009, MRC was named a CoMission City by the National Marriage CoMission, because of its efforts to mobilize and engage the community on healthy marriages, the first line of defense against father absence and weak father-child relationships, according to NFI. MRC will rely on NFI technical assistance to (a) strengthen its organizational structure in order to service more couples; (b) enhance its marketing ability; and, (c) develop essential leadership and understanding of fatherhood issues among its board of directors and volunteers.

Please visit us online at www.marriageresourceccc.org.

Masjid Bilal, Inc. | Back to Top |
Richmond, VA

Masjid Bilal, Inc. is a community focused faith-based initiative in Richmond, Virginia’s historic Church Hill community. Masjid Bilal is the oldest Islamic Organization in Central Virginia having been founded more that 50 years ago. As a faith-based institution Masjid Bilal provides religious instruction and services to families throughout the Richmond Metropolitan area. However, Masjid Bilal is also committed to human and social service as part of our commitment to do the work of our Creator. We provide hunger relief and anti-homelessness support to hundreds of families each year. We’ve also provided educational services to children and their parents through partnership with the Sister Clara Muhammad Schools and regular parent training and classes. Most recently, as part of our mission to provide services that build strong individuals, strong families, and strong communities, Masjid Bilal began working with local Fatherhood Practitioners to create our Fathers In Training program which provides an opportunity for men to learn to become nurturing, involved and responsible fathers.

For more information, please contact us at (804)222-9825.

Metropolitan Area Group for Igniting Civilization | Back to Top |
Chicago, IL

Metropolitan Area Group for Igniting Civilization (MAGIC)—is a non-profit 501 (c) is a community based organization that services communities on the Southside of Chicago. Through MAGIC’s advocacy efforts, leadership development programs and community activism MAGIC serves its mission of organizing and mobilizing community residents to create and stimulate social change. One of our key constituencies is youth. For many youth, MAGIC is the only place that is willing to offer them an opportunity to grow and achieve their potential. MAGIC youth are the ones who will be able to conceptualize a vision of change for they are the ones who have lived through all that needs to be changed. We are proud to provide that opportunity to these strong, young people who truly do have the power within them to envision and create a more just society.

Please visit us online at www.magicchicago.org.

Millennial Mentoring Youth Academy | Back to Top |
Suffolk, VA

Y2K Academy is an African-American owned, faith-based education agency dedicated to strengthening and preserving families by providing mentoring and responsible parenting education and counseling. It is the youth outreach ministry of The Master's House Church based in Suffolk, Virginia. To eligible youth, Y2K Academy provides FREE one-year mentoring scholarships to children whose parents are incarcerated through MENTOR’s Children of Prisoners Voucher Program. Y2K Academy established its own social media campaign, “Have You Seen My Dad?” to encourage father involvement in Hampton Roads. The Academy serves youth and families through its Y2K Dadz™ Program and Y2KA Family Enrichment Center with mentoring which emphasizes academic support, workforce development training and effective parenting education as a means to decrease school drop-out, crime involvement, teen pregnancy and substance abuse. Y2K also founded and chairs the Hampton Roads CARES Circle of the National CARES Mentoring Movement, Inc., whose goal is to match one million Black children with one million Black mentors. In March 2010, Y2K will launch its “Y2K Virtual Mentoring” program which will provide online mentoring for youth across Hampton Roads.

Please visit us online at www.y2kacademy.com.

New Jersey Physicians Advisory Group | Back to Top |
Fanwood, NJ

The New Jersey Physicians Advisory Group recognizes that teen pregnancy, teen STDs/STIs, and single parent teen families, take an extremely high toll in the lives of today’s adolescents and on society in general. We recognize that these occurrences are not the actual problem, they are the consequences of the problem; the problem is teen sexual activity.
Social science shows us that families are the building block of a healthy society. Empowering teens to make smart sexual decisions will often lead to healthy family formation. We assist in this process though:

providing current, medically accurate information on teen sexual health to educators and health professionals

serving as an educational resource for nurses and educators by providing materials, workshops, In-service programs and conferences

making current, medically accurate information and resources available.

Please visit us online at www.njphysicians.org.

Refined by Fire Ministries, Inc. | Back to Top |
Jackson, LA

Refined By Fire Ministries, Inc. (RBF) was established in 1989 having been founded by Michael and Elain Ellerbe. The organization was incorporated in 1995 as a non-profit organization with an initial mission to provide faith-based programming in adult and juvenile corrections facilities. In the past five years, the organization has seen its mission expand to now encompass a focus on re-entry activities to include pre-release and post-release life skills educational programs for those offenders approaching release dates and returning to their families and communities in which they will, hopefully, rebuild their lives as well as providing resources and services to families of the incarcerated.

Refined By Fire Ministries, Inc. mission serves to partner with corrections facilities, community-based and faith-based organizations to provide life skills to assist in expanding and improving existing programs for the incarcerated, ex-offenders and their families. Refined By Fire Ministries, Inc. is committed to training and growing volunteers for their partner organizations.

The vision of the organization is to ensure that the incarcerated as well as segments of the state’s under-resourced population who are at-risk of committing crimes leading to incarceration are provided sufficient resources to re-direct their lives through educational life-skills programs as they strive to be restored to their families and become contributing members of their communities. Through its latest initiative, ReEntry Benefiting Families, the mission and vision of the organization are being carried out in partnership with the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections at Dixon Correctional Institute as well as other state correctional facilities by providing facilitation and instruction for pre-release life skills programs to include financial literacy, parenting, communications, marriage and family relationship enrichment programs. One of RBF’s newest programs for incarcerated fathers, the Read to Me Daddy project, has received national recognition and is a first of its kind in the state which provides for incarcerated fathers to be videoed reading a book to their child with the book and DVD being presented to the child. RBF has also provided programming in Louisiana juvenile detention centers through its nationally recognized, Break the Chain . . .Build A Bridge program.

Please visit us online at www.rbf.la.

Sandusky Valley Domestic Violence Shelter, Inc. | Back to Top |
Fostoria, OH

Sandusky Valley Domestic Violence Shelter, Inc. dba First Step Family Violence Intervention Center began as a domestic violence shelter for women in 1981 and has since blossomed into an agency delivering services to men, women and children. Offering shelter to both males and female victims o family violence, legal advocacy, case management, homeless services, financial planning, art therapy, Reiki, children’s programming and psycho-educational behavior classes, First Step continues to grow in its service delivery. With a dedicated and compassionate staff, First Step is committed to promoting healthy and happy homes in Sandusky, Seneca, Wood and Wyandot Counties.

Please visit us online at www.firststepweb.org.

South Carolina State Head Start Association | Back to Top |
Hartsville, SC

The South Carolina State Head Start Association, Inc. (SCSHSA) is a statewide non-profit organization whose mission is dedicated exclusively to meeting the needs of Head Start children and families in South Carolina. Our purpose is to provide a state forum through which Head Start director's, staff, parents, and friends receive and act upon information to be used for professional, statistical and technical assistance concerning early childhood and family development. The SCSHSA represents 20 Head Start, Early Head Start, Migrant, and Indian Nation agencies in the state of South Carolina with a presence in all 46 counties. We provide these services to 12, 595 low-income preschool children birth through five years old and their families in 205 centers of which 70 are NAEYC Accredited. The South Carolina State Head Start Association, Inc. is governed by an elected President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, Parliamentarian and Executive Committee. The Executive Committee of the Association is comprised of; all Association Officers and Officers of each Affiliate; Directors, Staff, Parents & Friends. The Association meets four times per year (September, December, March, and June) at our State Community Action Partnership Association Office in Columbia, SC.

Please visit us online at www.sc-headstart.org/SCSHSA.

Spirit of Peace Community Development Corporation | Back to Top |
Dayton, OH

Spirit of Peace Community Development Corporation (CDC), a faith-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit Ohio corporation whose mission is to provide for the economic, social and spiritual needs of our community. Spirit of Peace Inc. was incorporated in 2001. We have been working with low-income families since the first Dayton Northwest Weed and Seed Initiative was recognized by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2002, providing a wide variety of programs to residents of northwest Dayton including: parenting curriculum, family interaction activities, counseling services, positive recreation activities for youth and families, financial literacy programs, skill-building programs, i.e. computer classes, employability skills training, character education programming, youth mentoring, safety programs and community events. We have worked in close collaboration with Dayton View Academy to build supportive programming for students and their parents in order to strengthen the families and their internal support systems. This emphasis on family building has continued as a major component of all Spirit of Peace programming – including Project Safe Neighborhoods, the Miami Valley Reentry Initiative, and the second Weed and Seed Initiative.

The Spirit of Peace CDC is at the forefront of organizing collaborative community projects that target the at-risk populations of the blighted neighborhoods in our community where we are trying to address systemic problems in the community in order to make lasting progress. One of the keys to our success is that all of our programs have included both faith-based and community organizations. Central to our approach is the belief that an efficient use of faith-based resources as a part of our cadre of support systems will contribute significantly to achieving this long-term goal. These programs have achieved tremendous results where other programs have failed by approaching our youth and their families as mentors and as guides – adults that can be trusted to listen and help them make the correct decisions in their daily lives.

For more information please contact us at (937)276-9860.

UIH Family Partners | Back to Top |
Trenton, NJ

Based in Trenton, New Jersey, UIH Family Partners is the oldest nonprofit in the Garden State dedicated to the welfare of children, and has faithfully served vulnerable young people and fragile families for 150 continuous years. Its mission is “to build effective families through innovative and culturally sensitive programs for parents and children.” These include New Empowerment Alternatives (NEA), a residential program with a therapeutic milieu for pregnant and parenting adolescent girls and their children from backgrounds of severe abuse and neglect and the UIH Family Partners Father Center. A multicultural parenting education and work readiness/job search assistance/employment retention resource hub, the Father Center equips and empowers unemployed, noncustodial fathers to play a more positive role in their children’s lives, emotionally as well as financially.

Please visit us online at www.uihfamilypartners.org.

United American Indian Involvement, Inc. | Back to Top |
Los Angeles, CA

United American Indian Involvement, Inc. (UAII) is a non-profit agency providing health, mental health, substance abuse, employment and social services to American Indians and Alaska Natives (AIAN). For over 35 years, UAII has been serving the AIAN community living in the Los Angeles Area. UAII’s mission is to provide quality services and advocacy for the American Indian communities residing within the State of California in a respectful manner with high regard for cultural values, Tribal affiliation, spiritual and personal values of individuals.

The Strengthening American Indian Families (SAIF) Project is a program within UAII and is funded by Administration for Native Americans (ANA). SAIF’s mission is to improve the well-being of AIAN children by providing healthy relationship education to youth, couples and families, and by developing role models and mentors for healthy relationships. SAIF currently offers healthy relationship education through weekly one to one and a half hour workshops to youth, couples, and families, parenting classes for court-ordered parents and individual and couples psychotherapy for adults. SAIF is also involved in youth mentorship activities (drum group, winter camps, school and after-school programs, etc.), providing education about healthy relationships and behaviors. With the NFI grant award, the SAIF Project will build upon existing services to include fatherhood-specific components and to continue implementing services addressing domestic violence.

Please visit us online at www.uaii.org.

Wiregrass Hope Group | Back to Top |
Dothan, AL

Vision
To promote the value of human life and healthy life experience by strengthening individuals and families through the love and grace of Christ.

Mission
Wiregrass Hope Group is a resource for extending hope and healing to individuals and families by offering practical assistance, addressing emotional needs, and encouraging spiritual growth. Through faith-based and secular program Wiregrass Hope Group seeks to positively impact families throughout the Wiregrass community.

Objectives
Wiregrass Hope Group will promote healthy sexual choices among teens. We will work diligently to decrease the rate of teen pregnancy and increase the number of women who choose life for their unborn child. We will provide pre-natal education and parenting education for expectant mothers and fathers. We will strive to increase the rate of marriage success by providing pre-marriage preparation, by assisting couples in distress in getting their marriage back on track, and by helping existing marriages grow stronger, building families so that more children are raised in nurturing homes by their married mother and father. We will also work to build bridges of communication and a spirit of unity among churches and community organizations.

Sharing Hope ~ Caring for People

Please visit us online at www.wiregrasshopegroup.com.

2010 Capacity-Building Awardees

Awardee Narratives

Past Awardees

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