Family Resource Center at Emma

Program Overview

At the Family Resource Center at Emma (FRCE), located on the campus of Emma Elementary in West Asheville, we provide services and support in English and Spanish to help bring families to a place of financial, social and emotional stability. The FRCE provides services that would otherwise be inaccessible to residents of the Emma Community due to transportation and language barriers. The Emma Community does not have typical amenities such as a library, community center, parks or sidewalks, so the FRCE is considered the "hub" of the community.

At the FRCE, we provide a number of classes for parents completely free of charge. We teach Motheread, a nationally acclaimed program that helps mothers learn to read aloud to their children. We also teach Positive Parenting Program classes to help parents interact more positively with their children and manage problem behaviors. All of these services are offered in English and in Spanish and are completely free of cost.

Student and Volunteer Success Stories

Liliana and Erika are two young mothers who have lived in the same small neighborhood in the Emma Community for almost a decade. They had never met, yet they followed very similar paths, and were both regular visitors at the Children First/CIS Family Resource Center at Emma where they received food boxes, Holiday Giving Assistance and information and referrals. They both joined the Children First/CIS Motheread class, a nationally acclaimed program that helps adults and children learn to use the power of language to discover more about themselves, their families, and their communities. By teaching the "why" of reading rather than just emphasizing the "how," classes also encourage parents to be reading role models for their children.

"Before I was in Motheread, I was very concerned about speaking English around people and making mistakes," says
Liliana. "But after I took the class, I learned that the effort in trying to speak English was truly appreciated." Erika nods in agreement and adds, "My children are so excited when I come home from the class with books. After I read a story to my four year-old son, he will start making up his own story and
we will finish it together. He never did that before I took the Motheread classes."