Exploring How Family Resource Centers Work With Young Parents

Family Resource Centers (FRCs) provide critical services to families in their communities, including access to supports for basic needs (e.g., food), support accessing public benefits, and skill-building classes (e.g., parenting classes). While some studies have shown the effectiveness of FRCs in individual communities or states, less research has examined services provided by FRCs across states. To help fill that gap, this study aims to gain a better understanding of the services FRCs provide across the country—and particularly of how FRCs work with young parents (under age 25), how they help young parent-led families access public benefits (e.g., the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program [SNAP], Temporary Assistance for Needy Families [TANF]), and whether/how they provide services to young parent-led families involved with the child welfare system.

Through a multi-phase recruitment strategy, FRCs in 32 states responded to a survey and shared information on the services they provide, how they fund those services, how they work with young parents, and how they work with families led by young parents that are involved in the child welfare system.

Key findings include the following:

• Outreach to young parents: Slightly more than two thirds (68%) of FRCs reported providing targeted outreach to young parents to engage them in FRC activities and services. Many FRCs that did not report this type of targeted outreach elaborated that, while they do serve young parents, they do not target outreach to this population.
• Families served: Among FRCs that provide targeted outreach and services, 9 percent reported that young parents lead 51 percent or more of the families they serve.
• Type of FRC: FRCs serving young parents are more commonly structured as community-based than school-based organizations.
• Services provided to young parents: Concrete support (e.g., direct provision of clothing or food), access to resources (e.g., referrals to services), and parenting support were the most frequently accessed services by young parents.
• Supporting access to safety net programs, by family type: FRCs that serve young parents are significantly more likely to help families access the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP); Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC); Head Start; and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), relative to FRCs that did not report serving young parents. We did not find the same results when examining differences across the two groups of FRCs regarding referrals made to Medicaid, SNAP, and TANF, suggesting that these assistance programs might be commonly accessed by families across both types of FRCs.

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. We thank them for their support but acknowledge that the findings and conclusions presented in this report are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Foundation.