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Family Resource Center Opens in Pittsfield

Berkshire Juvenile Court Judge Joan M. McMenemy sat on the task force to implement the Family Resource Center network. On Friday, she spoke at the new Berkshire County center in Pittsfield.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The new Family Resource Center was little more than white walls and a metal desk in the corner when Diane Robie arrived as director.

Over the past few months, the center on the second floor of the Red Cross/Berkshire Children & Families building has been painted, prepped and now opened for business to provide support for local families.

And everyone gathered at Friday's open house were all connected to that effort, Robie said.

"We are part of something much bigger than ourselves," she said. "There is great energy here in Pittsfield and shared vision to strengthen families in our community by lifting people up and providing opportunities."

The Family Resource Center is one of a dozen opened so far across the state as part of a network of countywide, community-based support services created by an act of the Legislature in 2012.

Judge Joan M. McMenemy, first justice of Berkshire Juvenile Court, said the bill changed the way that juveniles were dealt with when it came to disruptive behaviors, truancy, running away, substance abuse and other issues.  

"These are all risky behaviors and they all have the potential to adversely affect the child's opportunities for education, success and happiness," she said.

"We can make orders, but they're orders focused on the child before us and didn't necessarily address the total family. .... Ideally more can be done for the whole family and more can be done on the prevention front to address some of these issues."

It was better to address behavioral issues at an early age than wait until the child is a teenager and in Juvenile Court, said the judge.

It has a training/meeting space, six offices for more private clinical or counseling needs, an early childhood room for play and reading, and a kitchenette.

"Every parent needs a break some time and every child needs somebody to listen always, and that's what they're going to find here at the Family Resource Center," McMenemy said. "As a community we owe it to our youngest citizens to optimize the ability to reach their full potential to keep them safe, to strengthen their skills and assets, to support their whole family."

Director Diane Robie said the center is there to respond to families' needs.

Robie said outreach and public meetings had been held to listen to what the community felt it needed. High on the list of problems were a lack of transportation, economic stress and the destructiveness of drugs; but people also talked about how they were working together to overcome these troubles.

"Our goal here at the Family Resource Center is to listen and to respond," she said. "We want to be thoughtful and intentional about the level of services that we offer to ensure that we are addressing the needs of the gaps and we're continuing to build on the assets."

The center is open from 9 to 5 on Tuesdays and Fridays and 9 to 7 on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, and the first and third Saturday mornings of the month from 9:30 to 12:30.

Paul Fitzsimmons, acting deputy commissioner of DCF, said the idea behind the centers is community and opportunity for families.

"We're in it for this — happy, healthy kids," he said, referring to the young musicians of Kids 4 Harmony who had performed at the opening.

"I've seen this before and I've seen it not work and I know why it doesn't work," Fitzsimmons said. "It doesn't work when it comes from myself, or a politician, or an agency director, it works when it comes from here, it works when it comes from the hearts of those kids."

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