Mission
Family Partnership, with community support, empowers individuals and families of diverse backgrounds to be stable and self-reliant by building on their strengths and skills.

The History of Family Partnership
In June 1990, Family Partnership (FP) of Frederick County was created and operated as a family investment center. Grant funds were awarded to the FP and our partners for the following types of services: Even Start Family Literacy, Head Start and Child Care Development Block Grant full day year round child care, and Department of Economic and Employment Development (DEED) employment and training services.

By 1995 we learned that the DEED seed funding and Child Care Development Block Grant funds were going to end. Friends of the Family (FOF), Inc., invited us to join the Family Support Center (FSC) Network. FOF recognized the investment that Frederick County had already made in our families and it’s because of that investment, from the County Commissioners and the community, that FOF invited us into the FSC Network. New staff were hired to design and implement the child development and parent education services, which are the cornerstone of a Family Support Center.

As soon as we became a family support center, we were also designated as a satellite site of the Flexible Evening High School. We were able to help students who had found themselves expecting a child and were unsure of continuing their education in their regular high school. Other students who were already parents and had disengaged themselves from their regular high school were also targeted for our services. We were and have been ever since, offering these students an opportunity to remain and/or reengage in their high school education while learning to be good parents.

Since becoming a family support center, FP has partnered with many agencies in the Frederick Community. FP joined forces with the Office for Children and Families and Heartly House in securing home visiting funds and are now a full partner in the Healthy Families Frederick project. We are also partners in the Judy Center project, a Maryland State Department of Education initiative for serving families of children birth through age 5 in the Waverly and Lincoln Elementary School districts. For the last 10 years, we’ve been partners with the Frederick County Health Department and Families Plus to provide prenatal services including a childbirth prep class for young parents. FP also partners with Frederick County Workforce services and Frederick County Public Schools Adult Education to provide services to youth (parenting and non-parenting) between 14 and 21 years of age to accomplish reach their educational and employment goals. The most recent partnership that FP has formed is with Frederick County Department of Social Services. We will work together to provide family support and family preservation services to families in the Frederick Community.

When we started Family Partnership in 1990, we had five full time staff and approximately seven part time staff of Adult Education. Now we are a staff of 27 full time and three part time staffers.

Disclaimer
Family Partnership of Frederick County does not discriminate on the grounds of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability or political affiliation or belief.