MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) – Alabama families have a new tool at their fingertips to connect them to resources they need. It’s a website called Alabama Family Central.
“They’ve been thinking about this at this state for years,” said Dr. Melissa Scarpate, heading up the new website. ” If you’re a parent or a caregiver, you might need to go to DHR for one service. And then you might need to go to the Department of Early Childhood for another, rehab services for another. And so instead of, you know, parents and caregivers driving all around town trying to go find the information they need, we have one place now where you can access it with search terms, or navigate by pointing and clicking. And just to be able to have it in one place that they can get the information from their living room is a really helpful thing, especially right now with COVID. And you know, everybody stuck at home, lots of places are closed. I think it’s perfect timing for this to have launched now, to provide those resources.”
Alabama Family Central provides information in four categories. “They are child care, health services, Family Services, and education,” said Dr. Scarpate. “We’re trying to build the directory up. And so that means we need service providers from, you know, private, to nonprofit, to organizations and agencies in the communities to go online and submit a listing so that we can really make this a robust directory for the families in Alabama.”
“We really just hope to have thousands of resources available, and at a click of a button for Alabama families,” Scarpate continued. “So if you’re sitting in west Alabama, and you need to find, I don’t know, let’s say transportation to the grocery store, and you have a sick child, perhaps I’m not saying you will, but perhaps you can find that service one day on our site and it gives you the number to call or an email. Just, you know, the day to day making life a little easier.”
See the list of resources available at https://alabamafamilycentral.org/.
There is also a place to submit new services and add them to the list.
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Original Story: https://www.wsfa.com/2021/01/26/alabama-family-central-website-connects-families-resources/