(ABC 6 News) – Family Service Rochester has been a community partner nearly 60 years, helping provide resources to families to improve their quality of life. Now the organization is looking to expand its operations to better serve the community.

The new project is designed around creating a centralized family center for the community. These types of centers are common in other parts of the country, and even in Minnesota, but FSR says it’s time to bring one to this area.

“It provides a wide array of services and support for families with the overarching goal to mitigate child abuse and neglect,” said Executive Director for FSR Scott Maloney.

The organization is still early in the process but FSR has secured funding from the Sauer Family Foundation to research the top needs in the community.

“Our community needs assessment really showed the need for our families who are falling slightly above income levels that allow them to access to benefits. They are working, they are employed and they are still needing some resources and support to make ends meet,” said Director of Child Welfare services Kelli DeCook.

Because of the diverse community in Olmsted County, FSR has leaned on community members to help address those needs by creating a co-design group.

“We were asked to interview family members and community members that are connected to us and then bring back our own feedback,” said Pastor Tope Dosumu one of the members of the co-design group.

Pastor Tope says it was important for him to represent the immigrant and black communities in the area and was very impressed by the findings.

“We were able to identify that fathers have been neglected when it comes to resources, the mothers are well taken care of when it comes to resources in the communities,” said Pastor Tope.

As this process continues, leaders are continuing to stress the importance of a family resource center.

“When you think about it when families have access to those services and support that building those protective factors then families thrive,” said Maloney.

The next phase is creating a parent advisory board that will continue to discuss needs and the figure out a location for the family resource center.