FBI Sacramento
FBI Sacramento Press Office
(916) 746-8106
March 3, 2016

Roberts Family Development Center Receives FBI Director’s Community Leadership Award

During a brief ceremony held at the Roberts Family Development Center in Del Paso Heights on Wednesday evening, Special Agent in Charge Monica M. Miller presented the FBI Director’s Community Leadership Award to the Roberts Family Development Center. Derrell and Tina Roberts, founders of the 15-year-old organization, will travel to Washington, D.C. to receive the Director’s Community Leadership Award from FBI Director James Comey during a ceremony held at FBI headquarters on April 15, 2016. They will join 56 other organizations to be recognized for their commitment to their communities.

The annual Director’s Community Leadership Award recognizes dedicated and selfless individuals and organizations that make extraordinary contributions to their communities across the United States. FBI Director’s Community Leadership Award recipients come from various backgrounds and a variety of professional fields. The issues they focus on vary greatly; however, all share a desire to help those in need and make their communities a safer place to live.

Derrell and Tina Roberts founded the Roberts Family Development Center (RFDC) in 2000 to help families avoid becoming part of negative social statistics such as dropout rates, teen pregnancy rates, arrest rates, and more. Since opening the center facility in 2001, RFDC has grown from a small, grass-roots center offering services to the Del Paso Heights community into an organization serving multiple communities via satellite programs at several area schools. RFDC provides a safe and supportive “home away from home” for struggling families offering support and education to maximize opportunities for success.

Education, parent empowerment, and civic involvement are primary foci of the RFDC. The center’s programs—both on site and at school sites in the community—provide positive support and are shaping a brighter future for the community’s families. Children involved in RFDC programs tend to graduate from high school, do better academically, have better attendance, and are healthier. This success is tied to RFDC’s effort to educate parents about community resources available to help them avoid the challenges many families in the areas served by center face.

RFDC offers a variety of programs at its center for families, providing much needed services to local schools in surrounding areas to strengthen families in the North Sacramento communities of Meadowview, Del Paso Heights, Downtown Sacramento, and North Highlands. RFDC programs seek to strengthen family literacy and health while providing low or no-cost services such as quality childcare, computer access, and fitness programs. Additionally, unique activities including golf, skateboarding, hiking, camping, gardening, fencing provide non-traditional learning opportunities to children who may not otherwise experience such activities and, therefore, may not discover unique talents and abilities.

In addition to its family-focused programs, RFDC also supports the health and well-being of the North Sacramento and Del Paso Heights communities. The center’s computer lab is open to the public on Saturdays to ensure Internet accessibility for the community. RFCD also hosts a community garden to strengthen ties within the community while providing nutritious food for the community.