BY TAMRA ALLEN

Emanuel County Family Connection is part of the South Central Resilient Georgia cohort with eight surrounding counties who are working toward making our communities aware of mental health issues and building resiliency. Part of that work is focusing on childhood trauma and the effect that it has on us all and what we can do to build resiliency. We are conducting training with adults, students, and community organizations specifically on the subject of childhood trauma and how it affects us all.

According to the latest Georgia KIDS COUNT data, Emanuel County, 31% of children are living in poverty compared to 16.9% in Georgia. This creates barriers to health services, healthy food, and other necessities that contribute to poor health status.

Emanuel County Family Connection continues its focus committed to improving school success. We have been learning more about the barriers of school success such as access to books in the home, absenteeism, food disparity, poverty, and trauma. We are working to further identify and address these issues that hinder the health and well being of children and families of our community.

We conducted “Connections Matter” with the Swainsboro Fire Department on August 27th, which is a three-hour training covering the topic of adverse childhood experiences. The attendees were very engaged and expressed their appreciation for the opportunity to discuss such issues that are vital to their work as firefighters.

Additionally, we offered a youth-oriented version of the same class called BOUNCE. This was presented to students at Swainsboro Middle School in Ms. Tracey Everett’s 6th grade class. The students enjoyed the class as they shared their ideas on how they can stay positive and find support when they are “stressed”.

This month we had a special service project of collecting stuffed animals to donate to the Swainsboro Fire Department to give to children who are experiencing a fire crisis.

Family Connection was also happy to celebrate Grandparent’s Day at the Early Head Start Program. Grandparents of the children attending EHS were invited to our annual “Grandparent Breakfast and Bingo Party” on Friday, September 11. The delicious breakfast of cheese grits, sausage links, fresh fruit, and a variety of muffins was served. Then a highly competitive series of bingo games were enjoyed where the winners received gift baskets as prizes.

Each grandparent also received a gift box with chocolates and a silicone bracelet with “world’s greatest grandparent” on it. The grandparents had a great time enjoying each other’s company. They shared stories about how they were so thankful of the Early Head Start program back when they were young parents and brought their child to EHS. Expressions of thankfulness and praise were made for the EHS program and what a blessing it is for their grandchild to attend.

Emanuel County Family Connection is a member of the Georgia Family Connection statewide network, working alongside children, families, and communities across the state to craft local solutions that maximize resources and make systems more effective and efficient.

During our monthly meetings, partners representing different organizations gather to share resources and ideas of how to better serve the children and families of Emanuel County. We will continue to share information on how to build resiliency via social media and various literature offerings through the schools and in articles such as these. Please look for more information on the Emanuel County Facebook page.

To learn more about Emanuel County Family Connection’s efforts, visit emanuel.gafcp.org or contact Tamra Allen at 478-290-4949 or tamra.allen@emanuel.k12.ga.us. Emanuel County Family Connection will meet on October 8, and all are welcome.