Roberts Family Development Center granted $450,000. How the North Sacramento center will use it

For almost two years, Derrell Roberts has advocated for funding to renovate the Roberts Family Development Center (RFDC), a stapled community center in the North Sacramento area since September 2001.

The community center has served families with supportive services that focus on school age education support, parent engagement work, and recently, mental health services and Covid support services.

On Tuesday, Sacramento city council members passed an item that would provide a $450,000 grant to the RFDC’s main center, on 770 Darina Avenue, allowing Roberts to continue redevelopment. He says the community center should reopen on October 1, just in time for their October Festival.

“I’m looking forward to serving again,” said Derrell Roberts, CEO and founder of the center. “I’m excited about the possibility of continuing serving youth and families from the area but also expanding my services, and increasing the number of folks that we serve, including bringing more teenagers to the center on the weekends, and just continuing to be a hub in North Sacramento.”

Distributed by the Sierra Health Foundation, the funds will go towards paying the primary construction partners, Rudolph and Sletten, and Intech Mechanical.

Roberts told The Sacramento Bee the community investments like these benefit the youth, parents, and neighborhood.