Family Care Connection (FCC) is a non-profit community- based agency, providing case management, parent education, life skills and resource and support services to fragile families in Dallas and Tarrant Counties . Our mission is preservation of the family unit through the provision of community support, education and advocacy. Our goal is to positively influence the direction of the next generation by reducing the incidence of child abuse and removal of children from their home. Family Care Connection empowers families with support, skills and information needed to provide children with safe and healthy childhood experiences. Services are provided to pregnant and parenting families with emphasis on teen/young adult parents, young parents aging out of foster care and pre and post adoptive parents. FCC services are three-fold:

Family Care Connection is a Parents As Teachers affiliate agency. Parents As Teachers (PAT) is a 21 year old, internationally accredited parent education and support program that is adaptable to the needs of diverse families and cultures. Working from a strengths model, PAT developed a research-based parent/child interactive curriculum. The program encourages bonding, attachment, nurturing, age appropriate expectations, screening for developmental delays and child safety. Parents receive information concerning brain development and the windows of opportunity available to them as parents, to become their child's first and foremost teacher. Parent enrichment and case management is provided in the home as well as group settings. One-on-one sessions are especially beneficial to young parents with special needs and /or learning disabilities. The written material is provided in several levels of literacy as well as in Spanish.

Family Care Connection became operational in May 2004. It has a 501(c) status and graduated from the 2005 cohort of the Building Capacity Building Communities program that is administered by the Foundation for Community Empowerment and funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Families and Children. Family Care Connection is a member of the Center For Nonprofit Management, Child Abuse Prevention Coalition (CAPCO), Parents As Teachers (PAT), Parenting In The Metroplex (Texas A&M University System), and African American Healthy Marriage Initiative-Dallas County.

Key Personnel

Sharron Whitaker, LBSW, MS., Founder and Executive Director, has worked in the family preservation arena for over twenty-five years. Her 2002 vision for child abuse prevention programming that focuses on strengthening families through the development of enriched, healthy relationships came to fruition in 2004, when she founded Family Care Connection. Prior to Family Care Connection, Mrs. Whitaker worked in social service arenas where she helped develop, implement and manage family preservation programs funded by Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. She is a licensed social worker, certified Parents' Resource for Information, Development and Education (PRIDE) trainer, a certified marriage/relationship skills educator; a certified parent educator through Parents As Teachers where she has advanced supervisory standing; member of the National Association of Social Workers, a long time member of The Child Abuse Prevention Coalition (CAPCO); President of Parenting In The Metroplex Coalition (The Texas A&M University System), and Secretary of African American Healthy Marriage Initiative-Dallas County.

Board of Directors
Annie Tinsley, President
Ronald Session, Vice President
Diane Bomash, Second Vice President
Juanita Hernandez, Secretary
Floyda Myrick, Treasurer
Attorney Julia Gooden, Parliamentarian
Attorney Lisa Abram, Historian

Our Statement of Faith- As followers of Jesus Christ we accept responsibility for providing helping hands that comfort, strengthen and encourage wholeness of life to hurting families and individuals.