Building 1

Center for Community Services

The Center for Community Services staff greets and directs visitors to the appropriate services and activities.  Case Management is also provided to assist families by coordinating service planning to ensure individuals and families receive the services they need. 

Director:  Linda A. Smith (688-2218)

Resource Specialist:  Noel W. Church  (688-2211)

Family Advocate:  Tausha Hicks (688-2215) 

Building 3

 DHEC (Health Department)

- Women, Infants, Children (WIC), 688-2221, Monday and Thursday

- Family Planning,  688-2213, Monday and Thursday

The Family Planning clinic counsels women about planning when to have children and methods of birth control. The goal of family planning is to improve the health of women before they get pregnant. Women get a complete physical exam when they have their first visit and every year after that.

New Horizon Family Health Services

Provides medical treatment for chronic illnesses such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and asthma, as well as for acute illnesses such as ear infections, sore throats, and hospital follow-ups.

New Horizon Family Health Services and Greenville Free Medical Clinic had 910 client visits in 2003. There are 800,000 residents of South Carolina without insurance.

688-2237, Wednesday and Friday

 Greenville Free Medical Clinic

The Clinic serves Greenville County residents who do not have Medicaid, Medicare, or any other form of health coverage, and who meet Clinic low-income guidelines.  Patients with chronic and acute medical conditions are served at the Clinic by area doctors and healthcare staff who volunteer their time to treat patients.

Tuesdays at 2:00PM, 688-2250

Compass of Carolina

The Family Violence Intervention Program is held at the Center on Thursday evenings. This 26-week educational program is essential to addressing family violence and stopping the cycle of abuse. Clients are referred from a variety of sources including courts, law enforcement, churches, and counselors in the Golden Strip area. For more information call 467-3434.

 Fees are based upon an individual’s income.

Building 4

SHARE - Early Headstart

This program provides early, continuous, intensive, and comprehensive child development and family support services to low income families with children ages 1 ½ to 2, and for children with special needs. The program enhances children’s physical, social, emotional, and intellectual development, assists parents in their parental roles, and helps parents move toward self-sufficiency.

First Steps 4-K

The First Steps 4K program is designed to provide opportunities to help each child develop physical, emotional, social, structural, moral, and cognitve competence in developmentally appropriate manner.  

Building 5

Golden Strip Learning Center    

http://www.greenvilleliteracy.org

This program is one of the five Greenville Literacy Association adult learning centers, and one of our founding agencies. Trained literacy volunteer tutors provide one-on-one and small group instruction in Adult Basic Education and English as a Second Language. A part-time schedule and one staff member in 1997 has grown to five days and two evenings/week and two full-time staff with a part-time AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer. Each year hundreds of adults receive help with reading, writing, math or English speaking skills. Our literacy programs have been extended to churches and apartment complexes in the community. The flexible schedules and multifaceted study options give adults the opportunity to upgrade their skills and become more effective participants in the community.

For more information please contact Harriet Withers or Erin Swartz at 688-2212.

 Piedmont Mental Health

Offers counseling to children with behavior problems, provides family counseling, and assessments for ADHD and other mental health issues. We have now grown from one counselor to four who serve the 4-year-kindergarten families, parents of children ages 0-3, adults and families, and families in other parts of our service area. 

Building 6

Strong Communities Initiative

http://www.clemson.edu/strongcommunities

Supported by a generous grant from The Duke Endowment to the Clemson University Research Foundation, Strong Communities is a project of the Instititute on Family and Neighborhood Life. It is a Public Service activity of Clemson University in collaboration with The Center for Community Services. Perhaps unprecedented in its level of community mobilization to ensure child safety, Strong Communities builds on the research-based premise that, to be effective, child protection must become a part of everyday life in the neighborhoods where children live, study, and play. Our goal is for every parent and every child to be confident that someone will notice and someone will care whenever they have cause for joy, sorrow, or worry. We seek to accomplish this goal through partnerships with schools, civic groups, businesses, housing agencies, health agencies, law enforcement, religious organization, social service agencies, and individuals.

Research shows that child abuse and neglect most often occur when parents and other caregivers are alone-when they lack the social and material resources needed to care adequately for children. Strong Communities works to increase resources for families by building a norm of mutual assistance-an expectation that people will watch out for each other. Building parent leadership and strengthening the connections among families are important steps in keeping children safe.

Cafe Cultura

Cafe Cultura Center provides programming to meet the needs of area Latino families with young children.  The Cafe provides a comfortable setting for classes and gatherings that are primarily conducted in Spanish.  Call 688-2224 for program information.

Building 7

 Golden Strip Emergency Relief & Resource Agency

The Golden Strip Emergency Relief and Resource Agency helps families who are experiencing a financial emergency. The Agency assists with the family’s essential needs, i.e.

• food,
• utilities,
• rent,
• medication,
• and also referrals to health, education, and counseling services.

The community has embraced these services and regularly supports the Agency with food drives. We have seen the evidence of tough economic times as the numbers increase every year. During the first year the Agency saw 3,890 individuals, and in 2003 they served 8,611 individuals, a 220+% increase.

Hours of Operation: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday - 9:00 - 11:30 am.  Wednesday - 1:00-3:30 pm.

For more information please call 688-2233 or email gsreliefagency@aim.com.

New Building

Greenville County Schools     http://www.greenville.k12.sc.us/child/index.asp

- 4-Year-Old Kindergarten Full day kindergarten program for children who reach age four by September 1st of the school year.  This program serves the entire Golden Strip area, however, transportation is provided only for Bryson, Fountain Inn, Simpsonville, and Plain Elementary attendance zones.  Early registration is required as this program fills up quickly.

- Parents as Teachers (Family Learning Team)

Provides parenting information and activities to parents of children ages 0-4.  Voluntary home visitation is also available to assist parents in choosing activities that will stimulate their child's development.

- Family Learning Team GED Program

"Equipped for the Future", the program's framework, focuses on communication, decision-making, interpersonal skills, and lifelong learning.  It consists of four major components:

• GED preparation
• parent support
• parent and child together time
• early childhood education

Parents of children ages six weeks to 3-years-old are the target population.  Child care is available upon request for children ages 6 weeks to 3 years.

For more information please call 355-5070 or 355-5071.