The Carver Center for Families (CCF) strives to preserve, strengthen and celebrate families.
As a family resource center, the Carver Center for Families exists to strengthen both family and community. The Center’s focus on families is based upon the Strengthening Families Framework and its Protective Factors, an approach first introduced by the Center for the Study of Social Policy in 2005. To ensure that this Framework and its Protective Factors have impact, the Center will measure its work according to the National Family Support Networks Standards of Quality, https://www.nationalfamilysupportnetwork.org/. The Protective Factors and Standards of Quality are defined below.
The Strengthening Families Framework encourages families and communities to focus on 5 key protective factors that improve family stability and healthy child development and reduce child abuse and neglect. In partnership with caregivers, families, and community members, the Carver Center for Families seeks to build and support these protective factors:
Parental resilience refers to a parent’s ability to handle stress and adversity with strength and adaptability. At the Carver Center for Families in Georgetown, TX, we foster this resilience through programs like Parent Cafés and Trust-Based Relational Intervention classes, empowering parents to navigate life’s challenges while nurturing their children.
This protective factor emphasizes the importance of children developing strong social and emotional skills through positive relationships and nurturing environments. Our youth programs—such as crafts, play groups, and story-time—help Georgetown children build these skills, setting them up for academic success and emotional well-being.
Understanding child development and effective parenting techniques is essential for raising healthy, thriving kids. The Carver Center supports Georgetown parents with resources like Bridges to Growth and parenting classes, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to foster their children’s growth and independence.
Access to basic needs and services—like food, housing, childcare, and healthcare—reduces family stress and strengthens caregiving. Our community navigators and case managers connect Georgetown families to these critical supports, ensuring they have the foundation to care for their children effectively.
A strong network of supportive relationships helps parents thrive and reduces isolation. Through events and peer support programs, the Carver Center builds communities where Georgetown families can connect, share experiences, and find encouragement during tough times.
To ensure that families are strengthened and supported through quality practice, the Carver Center for Families utilizes the National Family Support Network's Standards of Quality to evaluate its work.
The 5 domains and high quality indicators of the FRC model are...
1. FAMILY CENTEREDNESS Working with a family-centered approach that values families and recognizes them as integral to the FRC.
2. FAMILY STRENGTHENING Utilizing a family-strengthening approach to support families to be strong, healthy, and safe, thereby promoting their success and optimal development.
3. DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION Valuing, respecting, and embracing families’ diversity, and advancing equity and inclusion. The Family Resource Center respects, values, and embraces the diversity of families, including their ethnicities, cultural traditions, languages, values, socioeconomic status, family structures, sexual orientation, religion and spirituality, individual abilities, immigration status, and other aspects.
4. COMMUNITY STRENGTHENINGDeveloping a strong and healthy community by working collaboratively with various stakeholders and supporting families’ civic engagement, leadership development, and ability to affect systems change.
5. EVALUATION Looking at areas of strength, as well as areas for further development, in order to guide continuous quality.
The Carver Center for Families (CCF) in Georgetown, Texas is a family resource center (FRC) that nurtures the health and well-being of children, youth, and families, and builds on the strengths of our community’s parents, caregivers, and residents, as well as the organizations that support them.