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Feeling more like a family home than a resource facility, the Oceans Family Success Center has opened at 1201 Springwood Avenue.

With a focus on family/parenting programs, youth initiatives, and general resource for the community as a whole, the new center is made possible through Hunterdon Prevention Resources and NJ Division of Family and Community Partnerships [FCP].

“The idea here is really to support families in the neighborhood,” said FCP Commissioner Allison Blake. “While our agency supports the opening of the center, the goal is to establish a parent governing board. While there are certain services we’d like to see offered, it’s really the parents and the community that identify what the needs are and how to better support families that live in the neighborhood. I’m really looking forward to seeing how this center grows.”

The local facility is the 55th center of its kind to open across the state, third in Monmouth County with the other two located in Long Branch and Leonardo section of Middletown, Blake said.

It’s current success, open for less than one month and already to success stories under its belt, was made possible in part by a neighing resident center Director Linda Rossi said.

“Sandy has been a walking advertisement,” Rossi said. “She has litterally been pulling families in off the street.”

Sandy is Sandra Irizarry of Springwood Avenue, who after watching the center’s construction decided to stop in to see what they were all about, she said.

“I kept seeing the place, so I spoke with the director and they opened the door to me and gave me a whole brand new life,” she said. “I did some of the painting in there and now I’m a bilingual volunteer. I’m part of something now and I’m really grateful for it.”

On Nov. 3, the center held a soft opening event attended by 50 people who received tours and a catered lunch by neighboring Kula Cafe.

The reception area abuts an open living space filled with computers, board games. A more private consulting area leads a conference room and two age appropriate play rooms for younger and older children. Beyond that is the centers kitchen, pantry, and dining room.

“We opened our doors less than two weeks but in that time we have hired our staff and they are very experienced with the community and what the community needs” Rossi said during the event. “We’ve already partnered with six families and have two success stories.”

The facility will offer everything from parenting classes and family fun nights and dinners to afterschool homework help to a job seekers support group.

“We don’t tell families what they need, we want them tell us what they want,” said Karen A Widico Co Executive Director of Prevention Works. “We work with families as equal partners and our goal is to empower them. Someone might come in and say I have no money. We don’t just hand out money, what we will do is say okay, let’s do a budget. Let’s see how we can help you in some way. A lot of the time we will provide linkages with other groups that can provide financial assistance but maybe we can help them with job skills so they can get a better job. And for example, we don’t provide housing but we can provide linkages. There’s any number of ways we can help families.”

The center’s staff of three will be supported by a host of volunteers, Rossi said. They will also look to hire interns from area colleges in the spring.

For Freehold Director Thomas Arnone, who attended the soft opening, the facility is an important hub for a community that he calls his second home.

“This is home to me, this area,” Arnone said. “All my family graduated from Asbury Park, my in laws, my parents; and my daughter is a teacher at Thurgood Marshall School and my wife is a teacher in Neptune. My family had a grocery store right here on Elizabeth [Avenue], they also had a merry go round  that would go up and down the street, and there was a Bar called Blackies near train station owned by grandfather.”

“So, I really do have ties to the community and it’s special to watch it turn to the benefit,” the Mt. Carmel graduate said. “Asbury Park was the jewel of the state not just Monmouth County and we hit some rough times, as other communities did, but I’m seeing the transformation. It all comes from family values that we have and have always had here in Asbury Park. Let’s face it, it’s tougher to live than when we were kids and one parent could stay home. We need more facilities like this.”

A Community Wide Grand Opening event will be held from noon to 2 p.m. and 4 to 6 p.m. Wednesday. The Oceans Family Success Center is located at 1201 Springwood Ave, Unit 105. For more information call  732-455-5272 or by email at linda@oceansfsc.com. The center’s website www.oceansfsc.com will be up and running shortly.

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