History of the Fayetteville Family Life Center

          A long-range planning committee of Snyder Memorial Baptist Church proposed a Christian counseling center in September of 1973.  The committee envisioned a center that would provide quality mental health services with a Christian orientation.  They also specified that the Center would serve clients regardless of whether or not the clients could afford the therapy.

          Dr. Jim Cammack, senior pastor of Snyder Memorial Baptist Church, convened a meeting of pastors from Fayetteville churches to consider the project.  The need was affirmed and the group set about organizing a Christian counseling center.  A Board of Directors was formed with members drawn from church and community leaders of Fayetteville.  Dr. Harold Newman, a prominent physician from Snyder Memorial Baptist Church, was the first president of the Board of Directors.  The Department of Pastoral Care at North Carolina Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, was consulted.  Dr. Ted Doughtery, a staff member at the Department of Pastoral Care, became Director of the Fayetteville Family Life Center. He commuted from Winston-Salem. The New South River Baptist Association provided office space, and the Fayetteville Family Life Center opened its doors in March of 1974.  It was chartered as a nonprofit service organization.  Fayetteville became the first center outside Winston-Salem in what is today a statewide network known as Baptist Hospital CareNet Counseling Centers.  CareNet is a nonprofit subsidiary of North Carolina Baptist Hospital.

          Clients flowed into the Fayetteville Family Life Center, and within a few months Dr. James Hyde was named the first full-time Director.  Dr. John Mackey succeeded Dr. Hyde as director in 1984, and Dr. Gilbert Beeson became the Director in 1997.

          The Fayetteville Family Life Center was originally located in the Bordeaux Shopping Center.  It later moved to the present location at 114 Highland Avenue in Fayetteville.  The Clark House, a spacious brick home located across from Highland Presbyterian Church in the Haymount section of Fayetteville, is currently the primary location of the Center.  The building has been renovated so that it provides a waiting room, five counseling rooms, a play therapy room, an office/conference room, reception and administrative areas, a library/work room, and a basement for archived files.

          Several "congregational" offices have been opened in local churches.  The Community Family Counseling Center began operations in First Baptist Church (Moore St) during 1999 with a special grant from the United Way of Cumberland County.  This office makes a special outreach to the African-American community of Fayetteville.  Camp Ground UMC Counseling Services were opened in 2000 with an office in Camp Ground United Methodist Church.  Eastside Counseling Center, located in Lebanon Baptist Church of the Eastover community, was established in 2001.  Counselors from the Fayetteville Family Life Center see clients in these outlying offices on a regular basis.

          The Fayetteville Family Life Center began providing counseling services to the students of Campbell University in 2001.  Counselors from the Baptist Hospital CareNet Counseling Centers in Fayetteville and Lumberton cooperatively serve Campbell from their Student Health Center.

          The Fayetteville Family Life Center affiliated with the Samaritan Institute in 1998.  It received full accreditation from the Samaritan Institute, the largest association of pastoral counseling centers in the United States, in 2000.  The Center has also been affiliated with the United Way of Cumberland County as a United Way agency for a number of years.

          The Fayetteville Family Life Center has sponsored the opening of three additional pastoral counseling centers.  A Center opened in Rockingham remains in operation although it is no longer associated with Baptist Hospital CareNet Counseling Centers.  Another Center was opened in Smithfield but was later closed.  Most recently the Robeson Family Counseling Center was opened in Lumberton with Dr. John Mackey as the Director.  Rev. David Crenshaw has succeeded him.

          In recent years the Fayetteville Family Life Center has developed a program of parent education.  Classes are offered both at the Center and at other sites.  Built around the ideas of the Cline-Fay Institute's Love and LogicK approach, parent education classes have been taught in public schools, day care centers, pre-school centers, and churches.  The Center cooperates with the Family Court of Cumberland County to provide workshops on parenting for couples with children who are receiving a divorce.  This educational emphasis represents an effort by the Center to prevent child abuse and neglect in the community.