When Margaret Morton talks about the importance of the work done through the family resource center she runs in Sylacauga, she looks no further than Shakira Cook.

Cook came to Sylacauga Alliance for Family Enhancement (SAFE) for help not long after the center opened in 1997. Her mother didn’t have a job, and money and food were scarce. Center employees tried to help, but Cook’s mother couldn’t hold down a job, Morton said.

Cook came back to the center a few years later; she was 15 and pregnant. The staff helped her with food, transportation, parenting classes and childcare, among other things. Cook eventually graduated from high school and, thanks to a partnership between SAFE and Central Alabama Community College, she became a licensed practical nurse. She knew none of those things would have been possible without the center’s help, so in her spare time, she would often volunteer at the center as a way of giving back.

“Four years ago, Shakira came to me and said ‘I have something to show you,’ and pulled out the keys to her first car,” Morton said. “Last year, she came to me again and said ‘I have something to show you,’ and pulled out another set of keys. This time it was to her new house.”

Cook’s story, Morton said, is just one example of how important “cradle-to-grave” services are to a community. Sylacauga’s center is nationally recognized as a model, and under Morton’s leadership has grown to offer more than 25 programs including family literacy, after-school aid, nutrition and parenting education and other community support. The programs are made possible through more than 40 partnerships with businesses, nonprofit organizations, churches, schools, the city and medical community.

SAFE’s mission is to strengthen and support families, and how that impacts workforce development is a subject Morton discussed Thursday at the Brighter Minds education summit, sponsored by the Alabama Power Foundation. Morton is one of four panelists who shared thoughts on how to prepare Alabama’s future workforce.

Morton was a guidance counselor in Sylacauga’s Indian Valley Elementary School when the mayor began an effort with others, who felt that rather than working separately, different facets of the community should work together to offer services to families. It took 18 months to get the center running and soon after the doors opened, Morton became the executive director.

The center has continued to grow under her leadership. When the city shut down its transportation department because of an economic downturn, Morton reached an agreement allowing SAFE to take over management of the system so residents who relied on it could get transport to their jobs, doctor’s appointments and school. Today, the Sylacauga transportation department is profitable.

Morton said her job is fulfilling and she can’t imagine doing anything else.

“At the school level, we typically believe we have to be all things to all people and, more and more, we see that clearly it all begins with families,” she said. “Being able to help families from cradle to grave is an amazing, and humbling, experience.”