Extending impact through Child Family Community Partnership
Three local nonprofits – Tanager Place, Boys & Girls Clubs of Cedar Rapids, and Young Parents Network – have formalized a new partnership focused on expanding and strengthening services to children and families.
The three organizations have been working to establish this pilot program at the Polk Alternative Education Center since last year. Now a formalized agreement jointly known as the Child Family Community Partnership, the partnership will allow the agencies to extend coordinated efforts on behalf of families in the area, offering greater access to resources, streamlined services, and a diversified field of professional help.
“We all understand that no single organization can meet the total needs of any child,” says Tanager Place CEO George Estle. “It’s only through a working collaboration that we can start to offer what kids really need.”
Under the efforts of the three organizations, families have a greater chance of discovering the services that best match their needs. The Child Family Community Partnership offers concrete neighborhood services from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily, and includes services from all three partners. Psychological support and professional counseling is available from Tanager Place; before and after school programming is available through Boys & Girls Clubs; and weekly education and parenting support is offered from Young Parents Network.
More than 130 children are served daily by the Polk site program, which reaches more than 100 families a week.
“Young Parents Network has worked for years to provide a network of service to help move families to self-sufficiency,” says Executive Director of Young Parents Network Brian Stutzman. “The nonprofits in the Child Family Community Partnership each bring an expertise and commitment to mission that is collaboration at the highest level, and the families will feel it.”
“This partnership will strengthen the community and provide a model that can be used as a resource across the Corridor,” says Boys & Girls Clubs Executive Director John Tursi. “This program shares safe, solid resources for children and families, which can be individualized to meet the needs of any neighborhood.”
Administrators of all three organizations view the partnership as a positive example of unified collaboration and a model for future efforts in other locations. The project was established with the help of the Cedar Rapids Community School District and Daybreak Rotary.
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