Children & Family Services Center
Organizational History and Capacity

Several years ago, key human services non-profits joined with community leaders in Charlotte to create a stable environment in which they could save administrative operating expenses and serve their clients more comprehensively. 

After a process of identifying related organizations with interest in the project, nine respected agencies that serve families and children made the decision to form CFSC.  The CFSC is a separate 501(c)3 governed by the Board of Directors made up of representatives from each of the participating agencies as well as at-large community leaders. The Executive Directors of the participating agencies liaison to the Board through their board representatives as well as through the Executive Directors' Council. 

A $9 million capital campaign, chaired by Hugh L. McColl, Jr., retired chairman of Bank of America, to build the building was successfully concluded in late 2001; groundbreaking occurred in January 2002 and the agencies moved into the new facility in March and April, 2003. A 10th agency joined the collaboration in late 2004.  Two of the original nine agencies merged in 2006 as a direct result of the collaboration.
   

The agencies currently take approximately 78% of the 100,000 square feet in the building; the remainder of the building is financed and used by market-rate tenants.

CFSC agencies reach over 150,000 clients each year and have, combined, revenues of $44 million.  The majority of clients of the CFSC are from Mecklenburg County.  Six agencies also have clients from Cabarrus, Iredell, and/or Gaston counties.  The agencies serve the families and children affected by the multiple challenges of poverty, homelessness, child abuse/neglect, lack of school readiness, school dropout, and foster care.  The clients are 66% minority and 61% female.  Charlotte has identified neighborhoods in which there are concentrated populations of at-risk citizens; 80% of these targeted City Within a City (CWAC) areas are within a one-mile radius of the new facility; a minimum of 6,500 clients from CWAC neighborhoods are served by these agencies.

Statement of Need
The families and children who need the services of the agencies of the CFSC are those who daily face the multiple challenges of providing for basic needs, keeping their heads above water in the face of great hardship.  The many sources, faces, agencies, and locations they need to access can be confusing, even defeating.  A family trying to escape the bonds of poverty and homelessness may find it difficult, if not impossible, to provide quality child care or work to insure their child's school readiness. While Charlotte's human services network offers a broad array of services, they are fragmented and not centrally located.  It is too easy for families and children in need to fall through the cracks or only access one agency with a more limited focus through a lack of coordination of services.  

Human services agencies have traditionally faced their budget challenges by seeking donated space, space with low rents that tend to be in buildings which are not centrally located or are in sites that cannot guarantee long-term leases and cause frequent, disruptive moves.  Owning their own building with adequate space and equipment is only a dream for most non-profits; many operate in cramped quarters without the operational benefits of new technology. 

The vision of the participating CFSC agencies is only partially realized with the new facility.  While it offers a central, easily accessible location and contains technological systems that realize greater operational efficiencies, the vision is only truly fulfilled by the agencies in the building working and planning together to build new models of service. 

One reason is money. When the nine agencies went from paying rent higher than $15 a square foot down to paying $10 or less a square foot, more than $500,000 a year was available to be redirected to helping children and families.

The Children & Family Services Center, however, is about much more than reduced rent. It is a stable home where ten agencies can establish themselves into a coordinated system of collaboration. The synergy created among the co-located agencies has allowed for creative problem solving for individual clients.

Families not only will get the precise help they need, but will be far more likely to avail themselves of assistance since they won't have to travel miles from one agency to the next to get it.

The Children & Family Services Center will not only be a focal point in the First Ward neighborhood, enhancing the urban community, but is also a very powerful unifed advocate acting on the behalf of thousands of families.  It has quickly become the hub of planning for all community efforts related to children and families.