RESOURCE CENTER HEAD INTRODUCED

Sharland Reed plans to spend the next several weeks knocking on doors, meeting people in Cape Girardeau and helping assess exactly what the Family Resource Center needs to do.

Reed, executive director of the Family Resource Center, was introduced Wednesday during a press conference at Cape Girardeau City Hall.

The Family Resource Center was formed in June 1995 as a task force of the Community Caring Council. The task force found a need to bring services to the southeast quadrant of the city.

The center will serve those residents who live south of William Street and east of West End Boulevard. Services at the center could include an after-school latch-key program, GED classes, family counseling, health care and a myriad of others.

At the press conference, Reed said: "This is about the board. You have been working since 1995. Today you give birth to your baby.

"Cape Girardeau is rich in services," Reed said. "We do not intend to duplicate services."

The city is home to almost 200 federal, state or local service agencies and to almost 1,000 service programs including support groups.

However, not everyone has access to these services.

The Family Resource Center is currently housed at 760 S. Kingshighway. However, the group would like a building within southeast Cape Girardeau. They are looking at May Greene Elementary School, which will be vacated by the public school system when a new elementary building opens.

"We are very much interested in May Greene School," Reed said. "It would be a Godsend if we were able to get that building, and we'd be willing to share."

In fact, one of the goals of the Family Resource Center is to share space and resources with service agencies and organizations through a process called co-location.

Agencies would maintain their current location but would locate some parts of their services or offer some programs at the Family Resource Center.

Reed has 30 years of experience in social service and health care management. Most recently she served on the faculty at Howard University in Washington D.C. She is also a candidate for a doctor of social work degree from Howard.

While at Howard, she wrote grants, worked with advisory boards and did program planning, skills that will transfer to the Cape Girardeau program, she said.

Topping Reed's list of things to do are finding a place to house programs, finding funds and communicating with the community.

The center's board received a $90,000 grant from the Missouri Department of Social Services. The grant expired in December.

Grant writing and fund raising will be a big part of Reed's duties.

"I also want to meet people and talk with people in the community," she said. "I want to talk with people with the agencies and with people in the community. Too often we assume we know what people need. But we need to hear from them what their priorities are."

Reed is moving to Cape Girardeau from Silver Spring, Md. Her husband, John Reed, is director of the Bootheel Initiative at Southeast Missouri State University.