Statements

Mission

The Family Center's Mission: Breaking intergenerational cycles of childhood trauma.

Vision: moving toward resilient communities where all children thrive.

Today we're all facing never imagined challenges, and the power of resilience is essential for our community to come back strong. Parents are struggling to meet basic needs. Past cycles of childhood trauma are being perpetuated and new cycles created due to increased levels of anxiety, fear, depression, anger, and isolation. Our work helping parents navigate the challenging world of parenting and breaking multigenerational cycles of trauma is more important than ever! We want to see a world where ALL children are thriving, but we can't do that without YOU.

Our families need you and the tools for resilience that's possible because of The Family Center's Family Resilience programs. We also provide Organizational Resilience programming for staff at agencies that serve families impacted by trauma, such as courts and jails. By giving today, your family is changing lives, families, & futures. Together we're planting seeds of hope and disrupting childhood trauma. Become a Change Agent for Children by donating TODAY!!

Background

The Family Center recognizes that childhood trauma is a serious public health concern that has significant potential for causing long-term physical, psychological, and behavioral problems for children and impacts communities for generations. Neuroscience, along with psycho/social research demonstrates how Adverse Childhood Experiences and Adverse Community Environments (ACEs) can disrupt child brain development leading to diseases like cancers, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, etc, as well increased use of drugs and alcohol. ACEs also affect decision making and reactivity to stressors in life. Positive childhood experiences can build strong, healthy brains and lay the foundation for emotional/social successes, Resilience is possible, and all it takes is one caring adult to make a difference. The Family Center provides Family Resilience and Organizational Resilience. We work with families through groups, seminars, and in-home sessions helping parents recognize the impact of ACEs on early brain development and coaching them to learn effective and successful ways to engage with and support their children. We work with systems that affect families to integrate Trauma Informed Culture and advocate on behalf of all families to ensure they have the resources that will support them in creating resilient children. Together we can create more resilient communities. The Family Center is a licensed child abuse prevention agency serving middle Tennessee founded in Nashville through local Exchange Clubs in 1985 and in Murfreesboro in 1989. Over the years the organization has provided programs to meet the evolving needs of families in our communities, ensuring that its core focus on child abuse prevention remains central to its efforts.

Impact

The Family Center collaborates with community partners to help families from diverse backgrounds and confronting myriad needs learn, understand, and develop skills that improve parent/child relationships and we work with staff at agencies that serve families impacted by trauma. We are especially passionate about helping our communities' most vulnerable families. We serve approximately 2,000 adults each year and impact the lives of thousands of children through our direct services and Organizational Resilience efforts (Trauma Informed Culture training/coaching, ACEs trainings, and other health and wellness focused trainings). Our direct service programs include: Positive Parenting... Plus!, Nurturing Families, Co-Parenting, First 3!, and Restoring Connections. While all families could benefit from our programs, we primarily serve families who have experienced a significant number of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) or have been exposed to Adverse Community Environments, thereby increasing the potential for perpetuating cycles of trauma. We continue to be a community leader in educating local foundations, along with child welfare, legal and other professionals, on ACE research. The Family Center is a proud co-founder of ACE Nashville and is the only agency in the region with a history of collecting ACE data from clients, more than 3,000 ACE surveys since 2014. This data reflects that 71% of our parents have 4+ ACEs (as compared with 13% in the original ACE study (Felitti, Anda, 1997); 49% have 6+ ACEs, and 5% have 10 ACEs. The families we serve face difficult and seemingly insurmountable circumstances, yet have the potential for implementing real, sustainable changes in their family dynamics and alleviating trauma in future generations.

Needs

Exposure to childhood trauma is costly for our community and our nation. According to the Sycamore Institute, adults exposed to Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) cost our state $5.2 billion in direct medical expenses/lost productivity. ACEs are associated with risky health behaviors and poorer health outcomes. 22% of adults in the state have 1+ ACE, 13% = 2+ ACEs, 8% = 3+ ACEs, and 17% = 4 or more. Many of these adults, despite good intentions, are raising children who will perpetuate these outcomes unless we help prevent or mitigate the cycles of trauma in their families. Additionally, ACEs in childhood increase the likelihood of criminal behavior in adults by 28%; violent crime by 30% (CDC). Central to this are family histories going back generations with exposure to/repetition of violence as a means of survival. A TFC mapping analysis (census data: poverty, maternal birth/child abuse rates) identified families at greatest risk for perpetuated trauma and we focusing program delivery to serve some of our communities most vulnerable families. One example: 37208 zip code has the highest incarceration rate in the country (Brookings Institute). People in this area are primarily black with a$22,409 median income . 71% have children; 40% are single families in poverty.

CEO Statement

There are many wonderful organizations in our community and donors have many options, yet we hope that anyone interested in investing in the mission of The Family Center will learn more about the long term value of our focus on the prevention or early mitigation of Adverse Childhood Experiences/Adverse Community Environments, or ACEs. Each year we help parents better understand how their own ACEs inform their parenting and affect their children, while also providing them with the skills and tools needed to develop resilient children. We also help individuals working in systems that interact with more vulnerable children and families better understand the role they can play in breaking unhealthy cycles through understanding and compassion. Our work with families and systems has far reaching benefit and positively impacts thousands of youth each year. We do this through a small yet mighty and very passionate group of staff and volunteers. Over the past several years, we have been working to create fiscal stability through a diverse funding platform. This strategic effort is beginning to see light and this light is shining bright on our future. We hope, if you're reading this, that you'll join us in investing in the children and families we serve... because we need our entire village to help raise them.

Service Categories
Primary Category:	Human Services  - Family Services
Secondary Category:	Human Services  - Children's and Youth Services
Tertiary Category:	Public & Societal Benefit  - Public & Societal Benefit NEC

Areas Served

While the majority of our families live in Davidson and Rutherford Counties, we provide services for families from many other Tennessee counties - last year we served 31 Tennessee counties.

TN - Bedford

TN - Cannon

TN - Cheatham

TN - Davidson

TN - Robertson

TN - Rutherford

TN - Sumner

TN - Williamson

TN - Wilson

TN - Coffee

TN - Cumberland

TN - DeKalb

TN - Dickson

TN - Franklin

TN - Giles

TN - Hickman

TN - Jackson

TN - Lawrence

TN - Maury

TN - Montgomery

TN - Moore

TN - Putnam

TN - Smith

TN - Van Buren

TN - Warren