Expansion
On March 18, 2021, Partnership for Strong Families (PSF) opened its doors to the Columbia County community at the NorthStar Family Resource Center (NSFRC). Prior to opening, PSF staff, community partners, and community volunteers spent months conducting a community needs assessment to ensure the services and supports offered were what was most needed in the community. A visioning session with community leaders was also conducted in late 2020 to help us better understand the community’s needs. We have been able to offer a variety of services and supports such as a clothing closet, afterschool homework help, community wide events, and job search assistance with the help of community partners. A Resource Center Advisory Council (RCAC) was formed to facilitate collaboration and gain input from local community partners.
Dr. Philip Mobley of Lake City is the NorthStar Family Resource Center manager, bringing to the position a wealth of knowledge about the Lake City community along with a passion and understanding for the role of family-strengthening services within a child welfare system of care. Among many accomplishments in the planning stages for the new Resource Center, Dr. Mobley was inspired by the legacy of the North Star in naming the new Resource Center, sharing the following:
“The North Star is a beacon of inspiration and hope for many. The North Star is the anchor of the northern sky. It is a landmark, or sky marker, that helps those who follow it determine direction as it glows brightly to guide and lead toward a purposeful destination. Professionally, the North Star represents an agency’s unwavering definition of its purpose, its services and its clients. Clarity about a company’s North Star leads leaders toward their goals and helps them to envision the company’s future growth.
For African Americans, the North Star is as real as it is inspirational, and as spiritual as it is celestial. Another very important aspect of the North Star for African Americans is the indication of freedom. When enslaved people in the southern United States sought freedom from those who held them as captives, they devised ways to escape toward the North. Finally, The North Star was the name of an anti-slavery newspaper. It was started by Frederick Douglass, also a former slave who understood the depth of the importance of light and guidance.”
In 2024, an RCAC feedback group was conducted to explore the extent of RCAC activities, engagement, and responsiveness to implementation, organization, and patron needs. The full report from this feedback group can be found here.
