Gorham - The Family Resource Center started as a dream and last week celebrated its tenth anniversary.  Thursday afternoon, staff, board members and other community people joined to celebrate the ocassion. 

The Family Resource Center offers various social services and support programs to members of the community and throughout the county.  Cathy McDowell, executive director of the Family Resource Center, said the organization was envisioned to be community based, in that it is supported by the community and offers service for the community.  "We've come a long way," said McDowell.  McDowell said there has been tremendous growth over the past 10 years.  She added the staff has grown from one and a half person to 45, a budget of $35,000 to over $1 million and now offers five after school programs, four home visit programs, workforce development programs and assests management programs.  

Work to establish the Family Resource Center started in 1995, according to McDowell.  Initially, the project looked for funding through a community development block grant, was turned down, but encouraged to try applying again.  In 1997, the Family Resource Center got funding from the grant and opened in the spring of 1998.  Aside from offering many social services, in 2001 the Family Resource Center transitioned to offering more economics centered programs, according to McDowell.  She added the center got more involved in workforce development because of the economic troubles in the community.  

The center is dedicated to offering programs to build strong families, said McDowell.  "We believe families are the building blocks of a strong community," she said.  In the future, McDowell said the center will continue to offer programs based on the needs of the community.  "What we do grows out of what is going on in the community," she said, adding that this may mean offering more programs around financial stability and other economic issues.  

McDowell said the future of the Family Resource Center is also about the people involved with the programing.  "It's so much about everybody being involved.  So many people have heart and soul in this place."  

At the anniversary celebration, McDowell honored one of the founding members of the Family Resource Center, the late Gaye Anctil.  "She still lives in our halls and in the work we do," said McDowell.  McDowell presented Judge Wallace Anctil with a plaque honoring his wife, that will be hung in the Family Resource Center.  "She lived for that resource center," said Anctil in accepting the award.