SISTER CARMEN COMMUNITY CENTER INC

Sister Carmen Community Center is the designated provider of comprehensive basic need services and resources to the most vulnerable residents in the cities of Lafayette, Louisville, Superior, and Erie. Through our family-centered programming, we promote health, safety, well-being, and economic stability by meeting one-on-one with the people we serve. Our aim is to improve the quality of life for our participants, and assist them in recovering from challenging experiences and crisis by providing timely and meaningful wrap-around support in these areas:
1) Ensure residents have access to basic needs including nutritious food, hygiene items, clothing, household goods, connections to healthcare and mental health support, and more.
2) Help prevent homelessness and improve access to stable housing by offering mortgage and rent assistance, utility assistance, and connections to housing programs and resources.
3) Support people in advocating for themselves and their families to attain economic stability and, through resource and referral, help them gain access to additional supportive community and government programs available to them.
4) Empower individuals by offering them the skills and resources they need to succeed through family and community educational opportunities, including best practice parenting strategies, support groups, digital literacy classes, leadership/civic engagement programs.
5) Offer a range of nationally recognized professional development trainings to both internal and external human service professionals and stakeholders in an effort to improve the knowledge and skills of our organization’s members as well as our partners.

As an FRC serving low-income individuals and families, our wrap-around, strength-based approach is woven throughout three main program areas:

Advocacy: We provide families with one-on-one, individualized, and culturally responsive support to meet immediate needs, as well as short- and long-term goals towards self-reliance. We use a family-centered, family-led approach that focuses on their strengths. We support participants in advocating for themselves and their families to attain stability by providing information, resource/referral connection, and personal guidance that’s unique to each family’s situation. We prevent homelessness and improve stable housing by providing direct financial assistance, as well as connection to resources such as financial planning, parenting support, enrolling in healthcare/public benefits, employment, legal guidance, and more. Through several Advocacy programs, we also provide ongoing Family Support Services that help strengthen families, increase family economic self-reliance, and improve family health long-term. This includes building rapport, trust, family-driven goal setting, and more.

Nutrition & Healthy Living: An important aspect of regaining stability is consistent access to nutritious food, necessary medical care, and mental health counseling. Sister Carmen provides supportive services that can stop the downward spiral of a crisis situation so that families are not faced with the decision about whether to buy food, pay rent, or attend to their health.
Families who visit have access to our food bank, which also provides baby, pet, and hygiene items, we offer cooking/nutrition classes, exercises classes, free repaired bicycles, and a have a community garden. We collaborate with multiple local health agencies including two on-site therapists to provide health services to our participants as well.

Community and Family Education: We provide empowering skills and resources families need in order to make positive changes both at home and in the community. All classes are free, include in-person childcare, meals, and are in English and Spanish:
Nurturing Parenting Program: 12-week evidence-based course for parents of children aged 0-5 proven to reduce childhood abuse and neglect.
Active Parenting: Evidence-based course for parents of teens and ‘tweens gives parents the guidance, support, and skills they need to turn the modern-day challenges of raising a teenager
Circle of Parents: Support groups for parents/caregivers impacted by alcohol or substance abuse
Bridging Digital Divides: Digital literacy course ensures low-income families have internet access, a device, and the skills to use it effectively
Community Fun Nights: SCCC hosts free quarterly family-friendly events
Family Leadership Training Institute: 20-week nonpartisan civic engagement training to help foster diverse community leaders

Sister Carmen Community Center has been serving the cities of Lafayette, Louisville, Superior, and Erie since the 1970's. We officially became a Family Resource Center (FRC) in 2012, and our community has come to rely on our support and the important human services programs that we offer. The Omni Institute conducted an Impact Study about Family Resource Centers, of which Sister Carmen participated in 2020-2021. This report addresses the need for FRCs and specific findings specifically highlighted FRCs and value of center services and family development work we do. A key takeaway from this study was that families’ economic security, resiliency, and health improved while they participated with Family Resource Centers that offer family-centered, strengths based supports, and that Family Resource Centers were responsive to families during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We use the Colorado Family Support Assessment (CFSA2) as the primary tool for Family Resource Centers to assess family outcomes for those enrolled in our long-term Family Development Path. The CFSA2 utilizes the Five Protective Factors: parental resilience, social connections, concrete support in times of need, knowledge of parenting and child development and social and emotional competence of children. The tool is constructed to obtain objective and reliable information on family strengths, areas of need, and readiness to change. It also allows us to track individual families and their progress along the family development path. This information helps us gauge which services to emphasize, develop new programming, and identify new burgeoning issues in the community.

Annually we conduct the FRC Self-Assessment Standards of Quality for Family Strengthening and Support to assess our family centered care services and analysis of service for optimal delivery--we meet all of these standards and rank excellent in several of the categories. Additionally, we conduct periodic surveys of programs to evaluate participant satisfaction and needs. Our Participant Advisory Committee meets quarterly to discuss ways to improve upon policies and programming.

In 2022, we served 7,108 individuals within 2,804 households—not including the 840+ Marshall Fire affected families that we supported:
- 1,471 households received Advocacy services including 970 households who received $1,026,126 in Direct Financial Assistance:
o 514 households received $604,614 in rent or mortgage assistance
o 396 households $269,670 in utilities assistance (electricity, gas, water)
o 131 individuals received $49,524 for vision exams and eyeglasses
o 189 households received $87,028 for misc. support (taxes, phone bills, copays, dental exams)
o 155 households are enrolled in ongoing (or long-term) family development support through our Family Development Pathway and Housing Stabilization Programs. Despite a challenging year, a total of 131 goals were set, 35 were accomplished, and 96 are in progress.
- 299 households received $23,401 in free Thrift Store shopping vouchers
- We distributed 40 bikes, 129 individuals received bus tickets, and 244 received $15,265 in gas cards
- 1,870 households benefitted from the Food Bank, which distributed a total of 1,218,185 pounds of food including 775 pounds from our own community garden.
- 75 participants regularly attend exercise classes
- Nurturing Parenting Program provided 70 parents with best practice parenting strategies
- 39 families participated in Circle of Parents or Active Parenting support groups
- Bridging Digital Divides had 595 participants in it’s classes and provided 459 devices
- Family Leadership Training Institute’s cohort had 13 participants