The mission of the Parenting Resource Center, Inc. is to provide resources, services and prevention education to promote healthy, safe lifestyles for families within the community.

Description:
The mission of the Parenting Resource Center is to provide resources, services and prevention education to promote healthy, safe lifestyles for families. The Parenting Resource Center is an agency that focuses on efforts to strengthen families as a support to children and empowers families to solve their own problems. This agency has 29 years of experience working with families and youth of social-economic, learning style, family structure and ethnic diversity. We believe that children are our communities’ most valuable resource. Even in the best of circumstances, parenting and care-giving is hard work and the entire community has a responsibility in providing an environment that helps children thrive. We are available to all families, with targeted services to specific populations that include child care providers, single parents, divorced parents and blended families, low-income families, Spanish-speaking families and families of young adolescents.The Parenting Resource Center administers multiple prevention education programs and services.
The PRC Specialty Library, with its collection of 3,500 holdings, is a member of the SELCO public library system. The PRC resources of books, videos, games, multicultural selections, and curriculum may be accessed by the entire Southeastern Libraries Cooperating region, decreasing distance and time barriers for clients. The Parenting Resource Center’s website is www.familiesandcommunities.org.

Additional Parenting Resource Center programs that serve both Freeborn and Mower
Counties are Parent WarmLine/Línea de Apoyo y Comprensión Paterna and Crisis Nursery. Parent WarmLine/Línea de Apoyo provides information, emotional support and problem-solving assistance via telephone to English and Spanish-speaking parents, care-givers and professionals working with families. Crisis Nursery provides free emergency child care from 2 – 72 hours for infants to 12 year olds.
Since 1991, the Parenting Resource Center has been the coordinating agency for the Mower County Chemical Health Coalition. A federal Drug Free Communities Support Programs grant, now in its 8th year has funded strong ATOD prevention programs targeting community youth, parents and community stakeholders. In 2000 a State Incentive Grant resulted in a pilot Middle School F.A.S.T. (Families and Schools Together) program in Southland Public School District.

History:
The Parenting Resource Center, Inc. was established in 1977 as an agency of the United Way of Austin, Minnesota. The nucleus of the Parenting Resource Center has always been a primary and secondary prevention education library with printed and video resources available without charge to community families, care givers and professionals. Since its beginning, the Parenting Resource Center has had staff trained to discuss the challenges confronting families and the information and networking partnerships to make useful referrals. Since 1991, the Parenting Resource Center has been a state leader in coordinating chemical abuse prevention programs for families and youth. The Parenting Resource Center has always been committed to community collaboration and has significantly contributed to the accomplishments of a wide variety of multi-agency groups. An increased competency and capacity in technology has resulted in the expansion of our service area. We are now successfully administering local, regional, state and federal prevention programs.

Contact people:

Maryanne Law, Executive Director, (phone), (email) Heather Steinkamp, Coordinator Crisis Nursery And Parent WarmLine, (phone), (email) Kirsten Lindbloom, Social Programs Specialist , (phone), (email)

Office fax number: (507) 437-8419

Address:

301 North Main Street Lower Level Austin, MN 55912 (See a map)

Web Site: http://familiesandcommunities.org

Directions:

The Parenting Resource Center is located right downtown in the lower level of the US Bank