With a daughter who is handicapped , no money and no knowledge of the English language, Patricia Gomez-Gonzalez turned in desperation to the services offered by Springfield's Family Resource Center.
Nearly three years later, Gomez-Gonzalez has something to smile about. With direction from Spanish-speaking staff at the center, she's found not only help for her daughter in the Mt. Vernon Lee Enterprise, a school for special needs children, she's also found health care, glasses, clothing and job information.
"People told me about this place so I can find help for my daughter," said Gomez-Gonzalez, through interpreter Patricia Jordan, an Fairfax County employee for the Department of Human Services. "I found everything that I was looking for here at the center."
Although Jordan was not there when Gomez-Gonzalez first came to the center, she now is familiar with her situation.
"She couldn't get those services in Mexico," Jordan said, proud of the fact that even though Gomez-Gonzalez has limited communications, she can still get around via public transportation.
"We give her the maps and explain. If she gets lost, she calls us and we help her," Jordan said.
For Gomez-Gonzalez, the introduction to the family resource center at the Springfield Gardens apartments on Commerce Street turned her life around. Establishing life in a new country, she got the help she needed at the center and now she's spreading the word.
"We helped her and now she's helping us," said Jessica Van Fossen, who works one day from the center on behalf of the Hispanic Committee of Virginia.
"She's got a job now, she's extremely motivated," Van Fossen said. Although her daughter's school schedule keeps Gomez-Gonzalez from full-time employment, she does find cleaning jobs here and there.
Gomez-Gonzalez's case is one of the many success stories coming out of the resource center, which started out as a ground floor apartment in Springfield Gardens and is now a resource counted on by residents, management, the Fairfax County Department of Family Services as well as other community charitable and faith-based organizations.
On Wednesday, June 25, the center celebrated reopening after needed renovations. Renovations included an examination room, a handicapped accessible bathroom and other improvements. Work started on the center last August, while the center continued the minimum services, operating out of the Alcohol Anonymous room next door.
"We didn't want to break up the rhythm," said Sarah Allen, the Fairfax County family resource centers program coordinator.
"We pretty much are working closely with all these partners," Jordan said.
Services offered out of the center include medical services, housing, mental health, employment, youth outreach, substance abuse and legal advice. Although the center is manned by county employees for the most part, others like Van Fossen work there one day a week providing assistance where needed. Cristina Schoendorf is another example. She is the community outreach director for the Alternative House, a refuge for abused and homeless children.
"Sometimes the center is their first introduction to the county," Schoendorf said. "It educates people. It's just a place that kids come to and have someone to talk to."
FAIRFAX COUNTY POLICE officers from the Franconia District Station make regular stops at this centrally located facility. Not all the officers are fluent in Spanish and the people at the office help.
"We use the people here that speak Spanish to translate with the people in the community," said officer Bryan Gibson.
"Our relationship with the police has been just great," Allen said.
Officer Abe Gelabert worked closely with the Hispanic community in central Springfield while stationed at Franconia, but was recently relocated to the new Sully District Station in western Fairfax. The Franconia officers are working on becoming more active at the center.
"I think the potential here is incredible," Gibson said. "They have resources."
Northern Virginia Community College supplies nursing students on a regular basis to handle the minor medical issues at the center including school physicals. When the new medical campus opens south of Springfield Mall, the nurses and those services will move down there. It is about three miles from Springfield Gardens. Then, for those that utilize the medical facilities at the center will have to travel by bus to the medical center.
Fairfax County has several of these family resource centers situated in the southern part of the county. They include facilities at Crestwood Elementary, Culmore and Lorton. Each has a slightly different focus, said Allen, "but they complement each other."
Officer William Szuminski has worked with the center in Lorton also.
"It's more around the juveniles in the community," he said. "That's something they saw as a need down there."