By RONDA GRAFF

MCFF

All organizations evolve over time and the Family Resource Center in McCook is no different. After long-time leader Kathy Haas retired, Kaye T. Bieck took over as director earlier this year.

With a new person comes new ideas and to help fund some of those ideas, the McCook Community Foundation Fund provided a grant this past spring to help the FRC meet its mission of supporting families facing challenges.

A priority is expanding the assistive technologies library, which consists of of toys, educational resources, hygiene items, and home use medical items not requiring prescriptions. It is designed to help anyone who requires support their daily activities. 

Along with the grant from MCFF, funds from Community Hospital will be used to purchase some dementia dolls and other items that families may want to try, but don't have the means to acquire. 

“This will give families the opportunity to try an item that has been suggested before buying something that may not suit their needs as expected,” Bieck said. 

Some of the grant funds will go toward the facility having a “Love and Logic” certified trainer, who can lead a class for parents/guardians with children who have been through trauma. 

“This could help foster parents, those parents working on reunification, or just an adult in a child's life who want to help a child through trauma and understand that child better,” Bieck said.

A growing focus for the Family Resource Center is cooking classes, where they see a knowledge gap in today’s generation.

“The skills of yesterday's generations haven't always been passed down, and not everyone has the benefit of being taught home economic skills in a school situation or learning valuable skills like cooking from scratch, food preservation, shopping on a budget and other life skills,” Bieck said. 

The first course was cooking with WIC (Women, Infants and Children) products. 

“Rather than let these products go to waste, we're hoping to help give people new ideas for using these products so they can continue to stretch their food budget,” she said.

 Another area of focus is mental health and suicide awareness. 

“Our hope is that in addition to providing awareness and prevention, we will raise funds to help those dealing with mental health issues and the challenges they face,” Bieck said, including fuel and transportation costs to access a higher levels of mental health care.

The Family Resource Center will also continue to offer the programs that the community has come to rely upon and which needs on-going support. 

Perhaps the most known project at the Family Resource Center is the holiday adopt-a-family program, which can always use sponsors to "adopt" families needing holiday gifts.

“We can also use new, in-packaging toys to supplement our holiday gift program,” Bieck said, with those items assisting foster parents or parents who did not know about the program or may not have been able to sign up for the program in time, so all children can at least have a couple gifts to open. 

Also in great demand are hygiene items like deodorant, toothpaste and toothbrushes for teens and pre-teens and disposable aluminum pans, aluminum foil, cookie sheets, and non-perishable food items to help support the cooking workshops. 

Bieck noted that all services provided by FRC are provided free of charge.

She added that there is no requirement that a person or family be receiving any sort of government assistance to be eligible for the majority of FRC’s programs. “If you have a need, I will do my absolute best to meet it, or direct you to someone who can,” she said.

Bieck noted that she has a wonderful team of staff and volunteers, but there are always opportunities for anyone who would be interested in volunteering. “We could use help with folding clothes, sorting donations, doing laundry, light cleaning, and above all, ideas to keep growing our program,” Bieck said.

Serving as the director for the Family Resource Center is not just a job for Bieck, but rather a passion from person experience.
“I've been there. I was a foster child who aged out of the system. I was the young mom who was clueless, and I just needed a little guidance and support,” Bieck said. “I have been in a place where I needed to use the resources available in our community and I am so glad that I went through those challenging times because it has shaped the person I am and the empathy I have.”

She added, “I will never judge someone who needs help, and I will do my best to never turn away anyone with a need.”

Bieck is open to listening to anyone who may have an idea for the community and sees the needs of the community. 

“It takes a village to raise a child, and the community was and is my village, and they are now that village helping my children grow into the adults they will become,” Bieck said. “If we take care of our community, it will take care of us.”