The Up Center

  • Family
  • Housing
  • Mental Wellness
  • Veterans

Who We Are

The Up Center provides more than 20 critical support services for children and families in our community, including mental health counseling, parenting education and support, youth mentoring, foster care and adoption, housing and financial counseling, and services for people with disabilities.

We have served as a safety net for people in crisis for 140 years and have been a longstanding United Way partner organization. Today, we operate four locations throughout South Hampton Roads and impact over 10,000 people in our community every year by providing evidenced-based services and programs that work.

 

What We Do

The Up Center began its work in 1883 when economic hardships led to the creation of Norfolk United Charities to help alleviate homelessness and poverty. In our early years, we operated an orphanage for abandoned children, distributed coal to families to heat their homes, and gave shoes to children so they could walk to school. 

Over the decades, our leadership brought various organizations together and our name changed several times through mergers and evolving services. In 2004, a landmark merger brought Family Services of Tidewater, headquartered in Norfolk, and Child & Family Services, headquartered in Portsmouth, together to form Child & Family Services of Eastern Virginia. In 2008, we changed our name to The Up Center. 

Today, we continue the work of our predecessors by responding to the needs of our community’s most vulnerable children, families and individuals. And we continue to evolve to meet emerging and unmet needs, including mental health counseling, substance use counseling, counseling for veterans and military families, and service delivery through telehealth. 

Our mission: We are committed to partnering with children, families, and communities to improve lives and outcomes through prevention, intervention, and support services.

Through innovative services and community collaboration we build strong families.  By promoting equitable access and opportunity for all families we create the foundation of a resilient, flourishing community.  Our trauma-informed, equity-driven programs meet the diverse needs of our community, including:

  • Counseling and mental health skill-building

  • Early childhood education and youth mentoring

  • Foster care

  • Financial and housing education and counseling

  • Disability Services.

 

 

Details

Get Connected Icon (757) 941-5331
Get Connected Icon (757) 333-3274
Get Connected Icon Abby Peterkin
Get Connected Icon Chief Development Officer
http://theupcenter.org/