KINGWOOD — Two local nonprofits are celebrating anniversaries this year.
The Preston County Caring Council Family Resource Network has been serving the county for 25 years, and Starting Points, a program the Caring Council helped establish, is celebrating its 20th year.
Barb Thorn, director of the Caring Council, said the program was established in the late 1980s.
“A group of people came together to find a way to meet the needs of the community,” she said. Then, “in 1994 Gov. (Gaston) Caperton established the Cabinet on Children and Families. We were not in the first round of funding, but we were included in the second round.”
Thorn said the Caring Council applied for the Family Resource Network grant.
“I was treasurer of the Caring Council, so I applied for the FRN position,” she said. “We wanted to keep our name as Caring Council so we called ourselves the Caring Council FRN.”
She said the mission of the FRN is to assess county needs, prioritize them and looks for resources to address the needs. Under its mission, the FRN can establish a program like Starting Points but cannot do direct services. It must hand the program off to another agency.
“We did a county survey and found there was no family services for mid-income families,” Kay DeWitt, director of Starting Points, said. “We had Head Start for low income families and early interventions for families with special needs children. There was early literacy, but each teacher could only take 10 kids.”
She said this left some families with nothing they could do with their children in a group setting. “We partnered with WIC (Women, Infants and Children) when we started our playgroup in Kingwood.”
DeWitt said it wasn’t long before their numbers grew. “We started out with seven families and now we have 68 and a waiting list. Families contact us when the find out they are pregnant so they can get on the waiting list.”
She was introduced to a family from Terra Alta who wanted a playgroup for their town. “Now we have two playgroups a week in Kingwood and one in Terra Alta,” she said.
Playgroups are not the only service Starting Points provides. DeWitt said the baby pantry currently serves between 45 and 50 families per month. The pantry provides diapers, wipes, formula, baby food, blankets, coats and some clothing. There is also a hat and glove tree that provides gloves and hats for children of all ages.
Starting Points also holds a baby safety shower twice a year and has a Blessing Box which provides food for anyone in need. DeWitt said Starting Points also helps with the Lights on After School Program, the Main Street Kingwood street fair, An Old Fashioned Christmas and the after prom program.
Thorn, the long-time director of the Caring Council FRN, said she is retiring June 30. “The job has been a rewarding one for me personally,” Thorn said. “Being able to help people in the community and the friends I have made is priceless.”
Other programs Thorn helped establish include Energy Express, the after school program, Sports Camp, Partners in Prevention, a child abuse coalition and the Preston Prevention Partnership.
New baby clothing, formula, diapers, wipes, baby food, or monetary donations in the form of checks can be dropped off at Starting Points, 105 W. High St., Kingwood, or call 304-329-1969 for information.
