COMMUNITIES
Barceda
Families
As an organization, Barceda has enjoyed steady growth and mission
diversity over the past eight years. The original mission of preventing
child abuse and neglect has expanded to now include parenting support,
case management, sexual assault prevention education, child abuse
prevention education and awareness, abstinence education, at risk
youth prevention education and parenting classes for at risk parents.
The service area has enlarged from the original three counties
to now providing services into at least twelve counties of Southwest
Missouri.
History
In 1995 Barton, Cedar and Dade County
Family Service offices applied for and were accepted as a demonstration
site under Senate Bill 595. This bill changed the way Family Services
responded to child abuse and neglect hotlines. A two track service
approach resulted in only severe situations being investigated
and the remaining families being served through an assessment process.
Family Services were also mandated by Senate Bill 595 to collaborate
with the community to identify, support and treat families. Thus
the 3 counties individually and collectively began to strengthen
their community collaboration efforts.
In
October of 1996, the Children’s Trust Fund invited the
Senate Bill 595 sites to apply for a federal grant to develop and
administer a Community –Based Family Resource program (CBFRP).
In 1997, a Community-Based Family Resource program was established
to serve Barton, Cedar and Dade counties, one of only six awarded
throughout Missouri, hence “BarCeDa” began.
The five year grant was to be used as seed money to start a pilot
program that coordinated services for families with other social
service agencies and track the delivery of these services to prevent
duplication of services and decrease the risk of child abuse/neglect.
From humble beginnings, Barceda Families continues to grow in
meeting those core objectives and build further capacity in surrounding
counties as Barceda Families matures and has collected data and
can identify those services and programs needed to reduce the risks
of child/abuse and neglect.
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