About Family Resource Centers

Individuals and families in need often have to call or visit multiple agencies to get the help they need. Finding the right help is time consuming, frustrating, and often confusing.

Family resources centers solve this problem. In one place, clients can find the services and expert advice to navigate a short-term crisis and find long-term support to enrich their lives.

Catholic Charities has operated family resource centers for more than 20 years. Our flagship family resource center is Catholic Charities at C. E. McGruder in North Nashville. We also have the Catholic Charities Family Resource Center at Casa Azafrán in South Nashville.

In early 2025, we launched a fourth Family Resource Center in Cookeville as part of our County Expansion program. The new center—currently operating at St. Thomas Aquinas Church, 421 N. Washington Ave. in Cookeville—primarily serves residents of Putnam and Smith Counties while a permanent facility is being developed.

Services and expertise

Each Catholic Charities family resource center focuses on the specific needs of residents living in close proximity. Typical community risk factors include poverty, hunger, homelessness, abuse, neglect, poor health, evictions, mental illness, substance abuse and/or family conflict.

Generally speaking, each center offers:

• Basic Needs
• Emergency assistance to help pay overdue rent, utilities, and mortgage
• Food assistance
• Financial literacy
• Housing stability services
• Individual and family therapy
• Job training or career advancement

The specific services depend largely on the community’s needs.

A community hub

Partnerships are a enormous part of a family resource center’s success. Catholic Charities often provides space for other organizations to operate out of its locations so residents can meet multiple professionals in a single trip.

Family resource centers also serve as local hub of community activity and meetings. They provide a space where residents can collaborate to create a promising future by leading the development of community planning that best fits their unique needs to drive their future successes.