Creating Fun Memories with your Little One.

By, Angela Jones

When I was a teenager, one of my favorite songs was Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”.  (Yes, I know this shows my age, and yes, I totally rocked the huge permed hair)  I loved this song because it captured and stressed the importance of having fun!  With that being said, I believe that this also holds true with our children.  Today’s children are bombarded with technology, so much, that even my 4 year old niece can operate my smartphone better than I can.

This overuse of technology can sometimes overshadow the simple joy and importance of play.  Getting out the glue sticks, scissors, and construction paper can create fun activities and interaction with our kids.  This basic, “old-fashioned” fun is what we provide in our “Mommy and Me” meetings that are held at Hendrix Elementary once a month. These meetings are for parents and their child/children ages birth to 4 who are not yet enrolled in school.  We have story time, a fun make it- take it craft, and snacks.  Children love to have fun, and they love to spend time with their parents. After all, parents are their child’s first and most important teacher!  Spending one on one time reading, playing, and engaging with our children promotes healthy bonding relationships, early brain development, and most importantly lasting fun memories! 

Our next “Mommy and Me” meeting will be held Monday, February 8, 2016 at 8:00am at Hendrix Elementary School.  Come out and enjoy this time with your little ones, and remember: Kids Just Wanna Have Fun!!

Live at the Center

Happy New Year’s everyone! UFRC is back in action and is determined to have its best year yet! This past year we had some great accomplishments and wanted to make sure you all are up to date on what’s going on!

In January of 2015 we kicked off our financial Saving Up’ program. We provided wonderful learning opportunities for families throughout the year and matched their savings up to $300. We had 6 families save up to $300 each for a total savings of over $3,600. We have great faith that they are well prepared for the New Year ahead.

 We also wrapped up our first year with our Ace Scholars Tutoring program at Carlisle Foster's Grove elementary school. Our students showed amazing improvements with their average test scores increasing by 18.79 points.

In November we wrapped up Auction for a Cause. We had a great turn out and were very glad to see many of your smiling faces there! We raised over $18,000! In December we also hosted our annual Santa Shoppe. Qualified clients shopped for their children and wrapped up some really cool presents! We were also very privileged to make sure each child had a pair of socks this Christmas. Thank you to Knights Apparel for over 1,600 pairs of socks. Our Community generously made our Christmas Shoppe extra special this year.

Now on to January! This month we have a lot in motion. The Center is looking to update and expand our website. We will also launch our Strive to Thrive University. This awesome learning opportunity will help families earn resource bucks for items that they need from our Center. Stay tuned for more details to come!

Our GED, Workkeys and ESL classes have started up again today and it feels great to have everyone back in the building. UFRC is ready for the New Year and the exciting changes to come. Helping families thrive is our mission. What changes are you making this year that could have positive impact on you and your community? Please share in the comments section below. 

Food Drive This Weekend!

This weekend dozens of our supporters will be serving and collecting food at the Walmart and two Ingles Stores on Hwy 9. 

 

We need your help in two ways….

First please share this blog. Second, please give. We have some specific needs, but would also love to receive what God puts on your heart as we work hard to meet the needs of both families and children in our community that are in need of a hand up. 

 We will be serving starting at 9:00 AM thru 6:00 PM at the following store locations:

• Ingles - 4600 Hwy 9, Inman
• Inges -  2120 Boiling Springs Road, Spartanburg
• Walmart - 4000 SC-9, Boiling Springs

Thank you in advance!

All of us at The Upstate Family Resource Center… 

Healthy Smiles, Healthy Kids

Manda Hughson, Healthy Smiles of Spartanburg, contributed to this blog.  Thank you Manda for your work in keeping kids healthy and smiling!

 

 

Healthy Smiles Mobile Dental Clinic!

I am pleased to announce that we will be instituting a free mobile dental clinic in districts 1 and 7 this fall. This will be our first year pilot program to test the waters. If it is successful, we will implement the mobile dental unit in all districts so that we may reach all children in need.

Our mobile dental clinic will perform comprehensive dental exams, dental cleanings and x-rays. We hope to add more restorative work ( Fillings, extractions etc.)next year.

How you qualify for our program

1.)   You must not have dental insurance or Medicaid

2.)   You must be a student in a Spartanburg county school.

3.)   You must qualify for free or reduced lunch.

We will determine who qualifies for our program through our yearly dental screenings in the schools. This program is a way to reach those that do qualify but cannot make it to our dental clinic at The Spartanburg Community College on weekends about 4 times a month. Transportation can be difficult for a lot of people.

 

Hand for your reading pleasure--here are some fun dental facts!!

 

 

 

 

1.       51 million school hours per year are lost because of dental related illness.

2.       Flossing can increase your life expectancy by 6 years.

3.       There are more bacteria in your mouth than there are people in the world.

4.       Brush twice a day, floss and rinse once a day for a cavity free mouth.

5.       Smiling boosts your immune system.

6.       If you drink sugary sodas or juice you are 63% more likely to get cavities.

7.       More people use blue toothbrushes than red ones.

8.       Giraffes have the same number of teeth as humans. 32!!

9.       In Medieval Germany, the only cure for a toothache was to kiss a donkey.

10.   The cotton candy making machine that made widely consumed cotton candy possible was co-invented by a dentist. Before it was cotton candy, the fluffy confection was called “fairy floss.”

11.   An elephants tooth can weigh 6 pounds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The pieces to stability...

Do you often wonder how a program at the UFRC affects you-even if you are not a participant? Just because you are not the person seeking food assistance or reaching out for guidance as a teenage mother, does not mean that your life is not impacted somehow.

Did you know that high school dropouts cost American taxpayers over $320 billion each year?  Or that they would earn $1,000,000 less than a college graduate over their lifetime (note: this is discussed in a Family Solutions Program session which has a session focusing on education).  Are you aware that someone could be employed and be food insecure?  There are 24% of children in Spartanburg County who are food insecure but their family earns too much to receive SNAP benefits.  The UFRC is here to help any family, in any situation.

Economic Stability Programming

The value of assistance families received is graphed below.  Take a look at our Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program!  246 tax returns were prepared by a small group of faithful volunteers!!!  Over $240,000 of Federal Refunds were received! 

Saving Up! is one of our new programs.  Individuals or families with earned income could sign up.  Participants had monthly classes covering a range of subjects from basic budgeting to preparing for Christmas.  For every $25 saved, we matched $25 (up to $300)- that is potential savings of $600 in one year!

A new piece of the "puzzle" is Goal Setting.  We want to provide our clients with the tools they need to break the cycle of poverty and we, along with other Spartanburg County agencies, are working to implement strategies for clients to identify their own strengths and personal values to reach their goals. 

Adult Education

90.38%

Percentage of GED students who reached their educational goal level 

(i.e. improved reading or math skills a grade level or obtained their GED)

Work Keys Certificates Obtained last school year:  

ACT WorkKeys is a job skills assessment system that helps employers select, hire, train, develop, and retain a high-performance workforce. This series of tests measures foundational and soft skills and offers specialized assessments to target institutional needs.  Spartanburg County is an ACT Work Ready Community.

Spartanburg is Making Strides

Liv Hayes
Care Case Manager, Upstate Family Resource Center
South Carolina Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy Summer Institute participant

This is such an exciting time to be involved in preventing teen pregnancy in South Carolina, especially in Spartanburg!  Those of us who have been involved in this initiative know how far we have come but appreciate the importance of maintaining the momentum and continuing along the path we have begun.  I have served on the South Carolina Campaign To Prevent Teen Pregnancy’s Not Right Now committee and have attended Summer Institute many times.  I have gained so much insight into not only the issues that our youth face, but how our various communities are approaching these issues and what strategies are working best.  Attending Summer Institutes have increased my confidence in talking about teen pregnancy prevention and many other issues that go along with it.  I have gained a heightened sense of community pride, because I think Spartanburg is doing so many things well.  Spartanburg is very fortunate to have a united front of individuals, non-profit organizations, Foundations, other organizations, businesses and the faith based communities all working together with a common set of goals, all of which overlap and are interconnected.  Summer Institute helps to increase our community’s understanding that teen pregnancy affects multiple areas of our community’s well-being, growth and development.  Our community has developed a better appreciation for the need to saturate the populations we are working with, by providing a variety of evidenced based services and programs to these populations and by also always striving to follow current trends in best practices.  Spartanburg’s approach has been deliberate and effective, targeting those most at risk populations for primary prevention and intervening with a lot of support and guidance to the pregnant and parenting adolescents.  We are fortunate to have Summer Institutes every year to provide participants with strategies that impact young people’s health, futures, and communities.

It's that time of year again; time to start the ball rolling for our Christmas for Kids Program!

However you feel about Christmas, I know one thing, holidays and family traditions are important to any community.  Helping families thrive is key to making our community stronger and having parents that believe in themselves and children who believe in their parents is a huge part of the makings for a strong family.

 We are excited to announce that this year, parents/guardians will get to personally shop for their children.  Our goal is to preserve the pride and dignity of the families we serve in our community. We accomplish this by providing families the pleasure of choosing their children’s Christmas gifts.  We believe families will prefer this practice rather than receiving a hand out.

This new experience is a unique giving opportunity at Christmas because it provides two gifts in one:

1) The gift of presents for children and
2) The gift of pride for the parents who are able to provide for their families

We can only offer this program through the generous support of our partners.  We hope that you would consider supporting us this Christmas season.  There are more details below:

What: Christmas for Kids Toy Drive 2014

Where: Upstate Family Resource Center

When: Donations – NOW through December 1st

How you can help:

Monetary Gifts – Gifts of $25 to $5000 helps to supplement our toy drive by supplying any toys/gifts for the sale that we do not receive through donation.

     Send Monetary Donations to:
      Upstate Family Resource Center: 1850 Old Furnace Rd, Boiling Springs, SC 29316

     Memo: Christmas for Kids

Toy Drives – Establish a toy drive at your church or business.  We will provide you with a list of needed items, promotional materials, pick-up of toys, as well as, speaking to your group.  New and gently used toys only please!  **Please contact Jessica McKinney if you and/or your group are holding a toy drive.  Jessica will provide you with a tool kit.

Drop of Toy Donations (Monday-Friday 8:30AM - 5PM):
Upstate Family Resource Center: 1850 Old Furnace Rd, Boiling Springs, SC 29316

* All Gifts and Donations are 100% tax deductible

  

For simplicity, we also have set up a wish list on Amazon.  Click the purple link below to:Purchase toys from Amazon from our Wish List

For a printable list, click HERE

 Who to Contact:

For donations/drives: Jessica McKinney or Robert Coulston:

·        (864) 578-1385

·        Jessica.mckinney@spartanburg2.k12.sc.us

·        Robert.coulston@spartanburg2.k12.sc.us

***If you know a family with children attending Spartanburg County School District 2 schools, please share THIS information.***