anuary
12, 1980, Brenda H. Jones first opened the
doors of the Parklands Community Center.
She was motivated by the growing violence in
her community and the lack of accessible
recreational outlets and positive
alternatives for her two sons and the large
numbers of children and youth living in the
community. She began by opening the Center
in the evenings after she came home from
working at AT&T and eventually expanded the
hours when she resigned to work full time at
the Center. Thanks to a few donors and
volunteers, the Center started off by
offering table box games (Scramble, etc.),
indoor group games such as Stop Light and
Hop Scotch and just a safe place for
children and youth to congregate. Within
two years, PCC received its first grant to
provide substance abuse prevention
programming for children and youth through
its Road to Success Program – more support
to conducted the first computer training
program for youth ages 14 to 18 years old in
the community and to assist un/underemployed
parents and adults by conducting a data
processing training and job placement
program for 5 years.
As
time went by and the years of drug
activities and violence began to wear-down
the community and families, it was a
critical need to support families with
direct social and human services, programs
and activities to offset the onslaught of
drugs and violence that began to sweep the
community. PCC believe that children should
have the right to live in a safe home
environment, nurtured by positive and
healthy adults to see a good and positive
future for themselves, that the cycle of
hopelessness and depression among their
parents and other adults must be broken. PCC
began to include other services such as
mentoring of adjudicated youth, parenting
workshops, family bonding activities,
community-wide substance abuse and violence
prevention conferences and outdoor festivals
and cultural activities that allowed youth
to express themselves. To address the
increasing numbers of child abuse and
neglect, PCC created it Family Strengthening
and Support Program designed to provide
comprehensive services that included case
management for the whole family unit.
THE PROBLEMS
Parents are faced with trying to protect
their children from the ever rising in crime
and being able to provide the nurturing that
is need to raise their children to be
healthy, happy and productive. Many of
these parents were exposed themselves to the
horrific drug and violence era during the
mid-80's through the late 90's. We have
recognized that many are still grieving and
are afflicted by that lifestyle, too
emotionally charged to keep-up with
society’s progress and focusing on family
issues, which include properly nurturing and
directing their children. PCC feels more
comprehensive and intense wrap-around
services are needed to support parent in
order for them to heal themselves and
provide the necessary nurturing to their
child(s).
