Transcript Staff
Transcript Photo by Andy Rieger
Students from Cochran Music entertain guests at Wednesday's Center for Children and Families fundraising breakfast.
Forty years after a group of Norman visionaries opened a youth shelter, the agency is still nurturing children and building stronger families, community members were told Wednesday.
At a fundraising breakfast Wednesday morning at the Embassy Suites Hotel and Conference Center, families affected by the Center for Children and Families Inc. and its mission spoke out.
The center's mission includes healing, helping parents stabilize families and connecting families to neighborhoods.
"Boy I wish we would have had this back then," Alan Brinkley said of the agency. He and his wife, Anne, told the audience of problems they encountered as young parents of an adopted son.
Carol Bauman's adopted son, Mason, was hospitalized for 18 months. She sought support from CCFI when she brought him home.
"Hundreds, if not thousands, of lives have been changed by this agency," board member Mike Bumgarner told breakfast participants.
Linda Terrell, the agency's director, said she was proud of the agency's work for the past 40 years but she worries about future support. Oklahoma, she said, is near the bottom in nearly every negative category.
"I'm really worried. Our services are critical and they are a great investment in our community," she said. "We either support the children now or we pay for incarceration, mental health and substance abuse services later."
Terrell said state, United Way and foundation funding has been eroding at a time when families are struggling.
"These on-the-edge families are needing more help," she said.
