Charlotte County’s Family Service Center is a collaborative facility of government and nonprofit agencies working together to provide an integrated client service delivery system to residents. Phase two of the project broke ground in November 2022 with an expected completion date of November 2023.  

The facility is on a 6-acre campus in the heart of Parkside, a low-income community in Port Charlotte. The first phase has been open for a year, offering services from agencies such as Charlotte Behavioral Health Care, Valerie’s House, United Way and Charlotte County Human Services.  

Phase two will be the permanent location for the Boys and Girls Club, which is currently utilizing the first building for the 125 kids who participate daily. It will also have four large conference rooms, a washer and dryer and five breakout rooms for the organization, with one of the rooms dedicated to its teenagers. 

Housing 12 nonprofits so far, phase two will allow for a total of 14 nonprofits to be available at the service center.  

“It’ll be a whole campus that is trying to assist the community,” said Carrie Walsh, the county’s director of human services. “We’re leveraging community investment by integrating and working together.”  

Walsh said the best approach to remove barriers in the community is collaboration with a shared purpose. At the center, the motto is “strengthening the fabric of our community by empowering people to help themselves and each other.” 

All employees and partners at the center complete level two background screenings and commit to being trauma informed, meaning they all agree to be trained in a way that recognizes trauma that people may have experienced.  

Both buildings are about 18,000 square feet, with phase two having a community garden, playground, outdoor classroom and office areas. Each building is designed to be flexible, with interview rooms and work spaces accommodating a variety of uses and needs.

“The idea is anybody in the community, any organization can come in here and have a space that they can use,” Walsh said. 

Flexibility also allows for trial and error for each space, such as classrooms in phase one being turned into a forensic interview room for the children’s advocacy center and a multisensory room for counselors and clients who are neurodivergent or have Alzheimer’s or dementia. 

From mental health and substance abuse counseling to income tax assistance, the family service center acts as a centralized hub to assist or point residents in the right direction.  

Aside from offering services, the center also teaches life skills to children and teens, using a kitchen to teach basic cooking skills. Programs also teach how to do laundry and keeping up with personal hygiene. 

The nonprofits which lease with the service center applied and were approved by the board of county commissioners.  

Each nonprofit partnered with the center isn’t charged rent, resulting in a great deal of cost savings, Walsh said. 

“They’re cost to be here is to integrate and work together,” she said. “We expect them to integrate and to work together to be able to best serve these clients. That’s the idea. So, what’s able to happen is the hundreds of thousands of dollars that is saved is reinvested in programming.”Despite each lease lasting three years, the community action agency reviews the nonprofits to ensure the community is benefitting from the agencies each year. 

“We look at their participation rates, we look at how well they attend meetings, we look at how well they are using the building, we look at the online scheduling system. Because if you just say ‘Yeah, we’re here’ and they don’t use it, no thanks,” Walsh said. “This is valuable. So, it’s one of those things where we really have to evaluate the best use.” 

Nonprofits are also not tied to remain at the center, with the option of providing a 30 days’ notice to leave.  

Both phases are funded by sales tax projects, with the first building completed on time and less than the $10.6 million budget. So far, phase one has assisted thousands of residents in its first year. 

“Colocation and being together in a building is one thing, but true integration is another,” Walsh said. “We’re being cognizant of all the different opportunities so we can help people feel supported, but it’s really important that they feel that they’re worthy of a lovely facility and an investment. 

“So many folks who come to us when something has gone wrong, they’re in crisis. I mean, they’re getting evicted or they don’t have electric, they don’t have lights on or whatever it is. We want to make sure that we’re providing an environment that is calm and that represents stability. That’s the goal.”