About
The Family Support Center (FSC) offers comprehensive, family centered, community-based preventive programs for parents, caregivers and their children ages birth to five. Through its services the FSC will promote the full development and wellbeing of children, enhance the quality of parent and child interactions, and be the link to services for overall parent and family self-sufficiency and sustainability. Program highlights include child development, parent education, and health education, as well as resources and referrals.
When parenting is hard, our family support center can help!
To service families with children from birth to five years old, Howard County’s first Family Support Center will be opening in Columbia, in Fall 2023.
The goal of this Center is to help parents and caregivers with the challenges of raising little ones, with free and comprehensive services, resources and referrals. The Center will promote the full development and wellbeing of children, enhance the quality of parent and child interactions, and be the link to services for overall parent and family self-sufficiency and sustainability.
Our programs can help parents learn job readiness skills and build solid social networks while at the same time, give their young children access to a state-of-the-art early care and education setting.*
Howard County’s Family Support Center is to be used by parents, caregivers and their children together, to offer comprehensive, family centered and community-based preventive programs, such as:
- Quality infant/toddler development care, education and assessments.
- Education to help parents understand child development milestones and behaviors.
- Classes to learn positive parenting techniques, nutrition, Adult Basic Education, GED, and English as a Second Language.
- Assistance for adults to achieve educational, work, family, and personal goals.
- Tips to for healthy living and family well-being.
- A network of support from other parents and community resources.
The Center is funded by Maryland Family Network, leading Maryland's Family Support Centers. It will be located at 9790 Patuxent Woods Dr., Columbia 21046, and open Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Write [email protected] or call 410-313-CARE (2273) for more information.
*A Family Support Center is not a child care center.
The Family Support Center is a program of the Office of Children and Families.