Family Resource and Youth Service Centers (FRYSC) were mandated by the state of Kentucky through KERA, the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990. The purpose of these programs is to enhance all students’ abilities to succeed in school.
There are state-mandated core components for Family Resource Centers (FRCs), which serve elementary schools, and Youth Service Centers (YSCs), which serve middle and high schools.
“The main goal of the Family Resource and Youth Service Centers is to remove any non-academic barriers that a child may have in order to enhance that child’s academic success,” said Sutton Elementary School’s FRC Coordinator, Jennifer Thurman.
Daviess County Public Schools and Owensboro Public Schools FRYSC coordinators work seamlessly within their district, often collaborating to meet the needs of families. Since there are usually siblings in families, the overlap of services is provided through the dedicated FRYSC coordinators in both school districts.
Kelly May has been Audubon Elementary School’s FRYSC coordinator for 15 years, and she said that all coordinators are there to meet whatever needs arise in a student or family.
She said every year is different across the district for students who qualify for needs and that the district has seen their free and reduced rate student population go over 50 percent.
From early November to winter break, FRYSCs work to make sure the holiday needs are met for families. Annually, DCPS creates food baskets for Thanksgiving with many of the schools holding canned food or coin drives.
For Christmas, however, DCPS tried something new, May said, with efforts focused on collaborative Family First Experience Basket. Schools raised money through coin drives and requested donations to create a basket that included passes for families to experience activities together. These included movie, bowling or ice skating passes or even some with card and board games.
Around 300 families throughout the district received an experience basket.
By combining their efforts, DCPS coordinators coordinate purchases for families through applications sent in by parents. Amy Nonweiler, College View Middle School FRYSC, said that this process also helps parents who may have children attending three different DCPS schools but only one application needs to be filled out.
May said that because of the strengths of the FRYSC program and the relationships that families have with specific school coordinators, many do reach out for seasonal help because they know it’s going to be nice.
“That’s the relationship I feel,” she said.
Even though the holiday season is when they are the busiest, both districts said that they work together to cover the needs of the entire district.
“One way we do this is through district-wide programming,” said Owensboro Middle School YSC Coordinator Amanda Hirtz. “We have recently held district wide programs on internet safety, budgeting and vaping. These are topics that may be of interest throughout the district regardless of the age of the children.”
And through the summer, FRYSC programs offer educational enhancement opportunities during the Summer Feeding Program and collecting supplies for back to school.
OPS elementary school FRCs offer weekend backpacks, where students take home non-perishable items for the weekend, literacy programs and family engagement opportunities. The district YSCs provide programming related to career exploration and development and substance abuse education and counseling.
“Helping families to feel connected and welcome in our schools is a big part of our goal as Family Resource Youth Service Centers,” said Thurman.
The elementary schools in DCPS also offer a backpack program, and May said that in 2008, Audubon Elementary School was the first to offer it through a partnership with Settle Memorial Church, which has been faithfully providing weekend backpacks since the beginning. May said this is incredibly generous since other schools have to make the weekend backpacks “piecemeal.”
“There is no way to make everything equal,” May said. “You do what your resources provide.”
May said that it is often about seeing the need — whatever need — and then going through the red tape to get it done. She constantly has a catalog in her mind of what local agencies offer services that could be needed by those she serves.
For example, May said, she had a student with cerebral palsy who had been fitted for braces by Kosair Shriners Hospital in Louisville. The father of the student was unable to take off from work so May got permission to use a district van to transport the child to Louisville to get his braces.
“I felt the weight of of the job when I started,” May said. “When I don’t do it, they suffer. I do my best to meet the needs of the child.”
Nonweiler said that she, too, works to meet the meet the needs of her students. She said that the joy she finds in the student’s reaction when she has taken him for a dental or eye examination is extremely rewarding.
“It is so awesome to take them and then after, see them looking in the mirror,” Nonweiler said. “Those moments are priceless.”
Daviess County High School FRYSC coordinator Megan Nicodemus, whose mother helped pilot the original FRYSC program in 1991, said students’ most basic needs must be met before they can focus on success.
“Our number one goal is to remove barriers so they can be successful in life,” Nonweiler said.
Although it is a daunting task, Hirtz said that it is one that many who work in a school are willing to take on.
“When children know that you are a person they can come to in times of need, when they are struggling and their home life is difficult, that you are a safe place it cannot help but foster strong relationships and hopefully, trust,” Hirtz said.
All of the coordinators agree that Owensboro is a city that cares about its community and has resources in place to help meet the needs of the families.
“There are many stories of families that receive assistance, but the child who is excited about being able to purchase new clothes, the child who is so relieved when you have that school supply that they need, the child who asks you on Friday, ‘Are we getting our food bag today?’ and smiles when you say ‘Yes,” — those are the things that make it all worthwhile,” Thurman said.
