Keeping the Door Open: An Interview with Community Leaders

Family Focus has been serving Illinois communities for over 30 years. What's the secret to their success?

It's hard to imagine Leslie Daniel as a shy teenager. But the bright, self-possessed 27-year-old woman says she would not be who she is if she hadn't had a place like the Family Focus Center to guide her through tough times. The Evanston, Illinois-based community organization started off as a drop-in center in 1976 and has since grown to provide counseling, tutoring and after-school programming to families in five other Illinois locations. JoAnn Avery, who has been with the center for 27 years, has seen Leslie Daniel through becoming a teen mother, college graduate and now working as a fellow employee of Family Focus, leading pregnancy prevention workshops.

For Avery, the success of the center comes down to the deep connections they have made with the community. The focus has always been on serving as a "safe haven" for all members of the family, seeing thousands of people through financial and emotional hard times. Funded through a combination of government, foundation and individual donations, Family Focus provides free, all-purpose programming -- from early childhood literacy to community leadership training. Both Avery and Daniel emphasize the center's open-door policy: No one who agrees to abide by the basic rules is turned away.

Rock the Trail recently sat down with Avery and Daniel to talk about how the center became a place so many people in the community consider part of an extended family and a home away from home.

Part I
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