Heather Burrell had always had patience to spare with her young daughter. But the sudden death of her husband left her reeling with grief and the stress of single-parenthood in a city where she had no close family and few friends.

“I started really losing my patience with her and I didn’t like it,” Heather says as she plays with Ivy, age 2½. “There were times when I just didn’t know what to do.”

Her search for help eventually led her to FamilyWorks, a family resource center and food bank in Seattle’s Wallingford neighborhood. There, Heather found a warm and welcoming staff, a parent-child playgroup they both enjoy, practical parenting-skills classes, and family activities—all free.

She’s particularly grateful for a six-week course for parents of toddlers, which she says helped her put her daughter’s sometimes challenging behavior—and her responses to it—in perspective.

“After my husband died, I found myself needing control in my life, and I was trying to control her,” Heather says. “She’d get upset and cry, and I’d feel like a bad parent. Now I have more patience because I feel I understand her better.”

At FamilyWorks, parents and caregivers have access to a wide array of programs and support, including a food bank, family activities, parenting and life skills classes, a teen parent program, after-school tutoring center, and language/culture-specific playgroups in Spanish, Japanese and Arabic.

“Families get stronger when parents are connected to other parents and have information on child development and adequate resources for themselves and their children,” says FamilyWorks Director Jake Weber. “We reduce stress and isolation while helping parents and children bond and feel part of a larger community.”

That was certainly true for Heather.

“This center is amazing,” she says. “It has so many resources, and the staff is so helpful. It really saved my life.”