Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell joined other state and local leaders yesterday at the Bragg Hill Family Life Center to deliver a single message: Strong communities need strong families.
"Strengthening the family is the bedrock of society," McDonnell said to a crowd of about 150 attending the Virginia Family Strengthening Conference.
The conference, which ends tomorrow, is the inaugural event for Bragg Hill's 22,000-square-foot Sunshine Fitness and Wellness Center.
The nine-year-old center takes a faith-based approach to offering community services bringing together religious groups, nonprofit organizations and local, state and federal government officials. The Bush administration has championed such programs through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.
The Family Life Center held the similar but smaller Rappahannock Area Conference on Family Strengthening last year.
This week's conference focuses on issues ranging from responsible fatherhood to youth gang prevention to children of incarcerated parents.
Two-parent families are essential, said McDonnell, a Republican from Virginia Beach.
The national first-time divorce rate is about 51 percent, he said, calling that figure "a national tragedy."
The proposed state constitutional amendment defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman will give voters an opportunity in November to strengthen families, McDonnell said.
"The more we affirm the two-parent family, the stronger society will be," he said.
The attorney general was joined by Virginia House of Delegates Speaker Bill Howell, R-Stafford County, Fredericksburg Mayor Tom Tomzak and City Councilman Hashmel Turner.
"We talk about a lot of things in this country," Howell said. "We talk about taxes, problems with employment and the economy. We talk about national security issues, but the single most important threat is the destruction of family."
Facilities such as the Family Life Center are integral to keeping the family together, he said.
The Rev. Joseph Henderson, the center's director, "is doing a wonderful job with his vision for the youth in this area," Howell said.
The Family Life Center serves more than 1,500 families through its programs, said David Caprara, a Spotsylvania County resident and director of the Washington-based Corporation for National and Community Service, the conference's emcee.
The center provides after-school programs, a summer day camp, English-language classes, technology training and senior activities.
Such local programs are important to shaping the city's youth, Tomzak said.
"I really believe that the village raises the child," he said. "We can't leave it up to the Yankee capital up north or the cash-strapped one down south."
Bragg Hill's new $1.9 million, multipurpose health and fitness center includes an indoor basketball court, exercise equipment and classrooms.
The Family Life Center also opened its doors on the coldest nights last winter as an emergency hypothermia shelter for the area's chronic homeless.
The Rev. Larry Haun, chairman of Bragg Hill's board of directors, pointed out a banner in the back of the gymnasium displaying the center's motto: We Build People.
When Henderson moved to the Fredericksburg area more than 20 years ago, his vision, "just as the sign says, was 'We will build people,'" said Haun, who also is senior pastor of Fredericksburg Baptist Church. "And that's what we've been doing ever since."
To reach NATASHA ALTAMIRANO:
Email: naltamirano@freelancestar.com