LOUISVILLE, KY. (WDRB) -- There are thousands of families across Metro Louisville struggling to make ends meet. And in some cases, it is affecting their children in the classroom. Right now, there's a program in place to help those families, but it needs funding.
Jefferson County Public School's Family Resource and Youth Service Centers was created as a part of the Kentucky Education Act of 1990. Since then, thousands of families have benefited from the program.
Holly Hill's family is one of them. She has a pretty big family and admits parenting is not always easy. "You just kind of go with the flow and make the best of the situation as it arises," Hill says.
And with several children in the house, all kinds of situations can and do arise. When they do, Hill turns to her children's school for help.
Hill says, "I went to the family resource center and they were more than willing to help."
The goal of the Family Resource and Youth Service Centers is to go beyond just helping students.
"We deal with the parents and the students -- the family as a whole," says Dawn Roseberry, a Youth Service Center coordinator.
Roseberry works out of Fern Creek High School and says the need for help has grown tremendously in recent years.
"A lot of families that would have been considered middle class in the past, you know, now meet poverty guidelines," says Roseberry. "So the free and reduced lunch rates are skyrocketing."
And that is sucking the life and money out of the programs at schools across the city.
Roseberry says, "None of them have money to do the programming that we used to do to bring people in, to help the students."
The money helps prepare students for the future says Roseberry. "The whole goal is to get them through to graduation and beyond."
"I went to them and said I have a child who is going to be graduating," says Hill. "She wants to go to college. What can we do to get there?"
The program has also given Hill piece of mind in an a challenging economy.
"If there was any need at all, I know that I can go to that school and say 'Hey, I'm in a crunch. Life has happened, could you help me?'"
If you'd like to help, visit the Family Resource Youth Services Center's website at: http://www.jefferson.k12.ky.us/Programs/FRYSC/welcome.html.
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