Safe Families for Children North Florida has a new home on Tennessee Street, and staff say the space will be a game-changer for the families they serve in the Big Bend region.
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The organization specializes in strengthening families to keep kids out of the foster care system.
Last year, they helped 76 local families.
Before securing the new office, volunteers had no central place to meet or welcome the parents they work with.
“It has been a challenge, you know, you've got paperwork in this person's car and a tablecloth for an event at this person's house,” Tammy Pulsifer, Community and Church Engagement Director, said. “Oftentimes, we would meet in noisy restaurants or somewhere at someone's house where there's all the distractions of life.”
Now, the new space means staff meetings will run more smoothly — and more importantly, the doors will be open to the families the organization helps.
“Having an office space would be a game-changer that they could bring parents in to do intake with. They could meet as a team all in one room and also, you know, potential donors or volunteers or even church partners,” Jewel Photopulos, the State Director for Safe Families for Children, said.
For former client Mary Page, the new office represents something deeply personal.
Safe Families helped keep her family together during a crisis.
"My first two kids was in foster care, been living with my granny for 11 years, and we were about to lose our littlest one, so Safe Families stepped in and kept her,” Page said.
Today, Page is an intern in the very office that once helped her, now helping others navigate the same system.
“Instead of them [parents] having to go around and stuff like that, they can actually sit here and do what they need to do and figure everything out, and it'd be a whole lot better,” she said.
Pulsifer said the new space also changes how the organization can present itself to the community.
"Of course, it's fun to meet at a coffee shop, but it is nice to say, hey, you can meet me at my office now, show them around, really show them the things that we can offer," Pulsifer said.
The community is invited to a ribbon-cutting at the new office on Friday, March 11th, at 11:00 a.m.
Those interested can RSVP online.
The organization is also looking for more volunteers to keep up with the number of families they serve.
Those interested in volunteering can reach out to Pulsifer at tpulsifer@safefamilies.net or (850) 545-5153.
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