UCI Giving Day 2024

Open since April 2022, the Family Resource Center supports the well-being and academic success of parenting students and their families. The Family Resource Center is a welcoming and inclusive space where UCI parenting students, affiliates and their families build community, access services and play together. The services are family-centered, strengths-based, prevention-focused, reflective, adaptable and supported by national standards for best practices.

Core services include parent education, child development and play activities, resources and referrals, drop-in availability, peer-to-peer supports, life skills advocacy, Parent Advisory Committee and leadership development opportunities. We aim to provide a welcoming and inclusive environment with family-centered activities. Parents and caregivers remain at the center to play and learn with their child(ren) and meet other parents. 

Attendance is approximately 200 participants on average weekly, with at least one activity planned daily, including drop-in crafts for children, weekly parent support groups, monthly dinner socials, holiday/celebratory events, and more. We understand that resources for learning and connection with their children enhance mental and physical health, academic performance and holistic success while reducing the incidence of abuse and neglect in families.

Our largest events are monthly family dinners on the first Friday of each month.  The FRC provides dinner and service, and the families eat together, sometimes picnic style outside, and build community. Your Giving Day gift toward our goal of $6,000 will help provide 720 dinner meals to our parenting students and their children while they meet their neighbors and connect with friends.

Parenting Student Testimonies:

• “The family resource center is AMAZING. I would have dropped out of my PhD program if it wasn't for them.”
• “I just want to say that I cannot be more grateful for your work and the help of the FRC. In the acknowledgment of my dissertation, I mentioned you because you and the FRC really help us. I hope you are having a well-deserved rest. Would it be possible to have the FRC open always?”
• “As a new parent, we have so much information from the FRC, and it really helps a lot.”
• “UCI is a very good place to live with my family, including my child, in a safe and nice environment. The Family Resource Center provides a nice place to play with my child and a variety of different kinds of programs.”
• “The one improvement I would like to see in my housing community is more funding to the family resource center!”

UCI has the highest percentage of parenting students in the UC system. This Giving Day 2024, we are confident that you can help us achieve our mission of making UCI a campus where parenting students and their families thrive by making a gift to the Student Services Fund.
 
For more information on our resources and services, please contact betsy.latimore@uci.edu.

Thank you for your generous support!