Family Success Centers

Family Success Centers

Committed to “family strengthening”

Ironbound Community Corporation is committed to “family strengthening,” a prevention-based strategy that partners professional staff with families as they reach towards their goals. ICC’s Family Services are primarily delivered through our two Family Success Centers that provide a range of services and programs to support and strengthen families. Community members look to the Family Success Center in times of need, for community celebration, and for access to opportunity.

Women discussing as the others knit

ICC has Family Success Centers at two locations:

Family Success Center West

317 Elm Street
Newark, NY 07105
Phone: 973.465.0555

Family Success Center East

29 Cortland Street
Newark, NJ 07105
Phone: 973.344.5949

We assist families with the following applications:

NJFC – NJ Family Care
LIHEAP – Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program
NJ SHARES – Assisting households throughout New Jersey to pay their energy, telephone and water bills
SNAP – Supplement Nutrition Assistance Program

We also assist families in learning about and accessing healthy foods through food education, cooking classes, and weekly fresh food distribution in partnership with Table-to-Table.

Programs include:

Parenting Programs: Parents exchange ideas with each other and gain knowledge from trained staff on how to reach their fullest potential as parents. We organize field trips and support circles to encourage further engagement with each other and provide resources to help them hone their parenting skills.

Parent-child Activities: The centers create recreational and learning opportunities so parents and children can spend time together. Art projects, park days and movie nights foster a sense of community between families.

Healthcare Access: Health Vans bring the hospital right into the community, sharing vital information and providing free mammogramsPAP smears, and colon cancer screenings. Our staff members help families maintain and improve their health by assisting them in accessing insurance coverage and by holding workshops on asthma and nutrition.

Economic Self-sufficiency: Hundreds of families get EITC tax preparation help that brings thousands of unexpected dollars back into their homes. They also come to the Computer Labs to build their resumes or find a job or participate in workshops on how to save money.

Community Gardening: At both FSC sites, families engage in community gardening and growing fruits and vegetables, a great opportunity for building friendships and taking home fresh produce.

Life Skills: Our staff coaches community members on how to improve their leadership skills, so they can fight for their rights and, collectively, those of their community. We also offer classes in Cooking and Knitting.

Housing: We stand with families in the struggle to maintain Affordable Housing in the Ironbound and work to ensure that their living conditions are dignified.

We recommend all candidates to have started their process by sending their applications to USCIS one or two months before the start of classes, or be ready to send their applications while they are taking the classes.

Parenting Programs: These courses offer parents the chance to engage with each other around the challenges they face raising children. Through a structured, hands-on curriculum implemented over several months, parents take on important parenting issues like bedtime routines, discipline strategies, and child nutrition.

Community Workshops: ICC also offers a host of independent workshops, bringing in outside resources or its own staff expertise to meet community needs. ICC’s many workshops include financial literacy, family health, children’s asthma, various life-skills areas, and environmental and zoning issues.

Our Family Success Centers (FSCs) work hand-in-hand with our programs. Our FSCs support:

Families in our Early Learning Programs, so that families can get all the support they need in becoming stronger and supporting the healthy growth and development of their children.
Our community organizers in their work advocating for both the improvement of housing conditions and maintaining affordable housing in the community.
Our environmental justice organizers and educators in working towards the development of a cleaner environment that improves public health, e.g. reducing air pollution and the corresponding asthma triggers that affect the community.
Our community garden staff members who bring families and neighbors together in community building activities and food and nutrition education.

For more information about our Family Success Centers or to enroll in any of our FSC programs contact:

Irenes Arce
Family Partner/Site Supervisor
973.465.0555 Ext. 202
iarce@ironboundcc.org