Sherry Farr, nurse manager in Lamar County, noted that while there are many aspects to the story of low birthweight babies in the county, the programming has been working.
“We will have more jobs than workers—and there aren’t enough kids in the education pipeline in K-12 who will graduate between now and 2025, even if we graduated every student. So that 16% not graduating on time hurts us,” said GPEE President Dana Rickman.
Coffee County is all too familiar with the heartache a community endures when mental health challenges end in tragedy. A cluster of suicide attempts within two weeks left a grieving community questioning how to prevent further tragedies.
Sometimes progress takes patience. This was the case for Lee County Family Connection Executive Director Patsy Shirley and Lee County Chamber of Commerce President Lisa Davis, who shared a vision to create the Junior Leadership Lee program.
Sometimes one conversation can create a seismic shift in strategy. That’s what happened when Rhonda Fuller attended a peer-to-peer presentation in Troup County after stepping into the role of executive director for Meriwether County Family Connection in 2017.
The program, a project of Polk Family Connection, which is sponsored by Georgia Family Connection, brings together local organizations and community leaders to help drive home the seriousness of the students’ actions and how they affect themselves and their loved ones.
Funding from Coaching for Literacy enabled Emmaus House, in partnership with the Get Georgia Reading—Campaign for Grade Level Reading, to transition the program to meet the educational and socio-emotional needs of K – 3 children, funding critical supplies, training, books, and literacy kits.
Georgia Family Connection Partnership’s Community Partnership for Supporting Youth Cohort formed in 2021 with 10 counties to help schools and community partners get students back on track toward graduating.
At Lumpkin County’s Student Outreach Center, students and families can go for support, resources, essential items, training and education, and social activities.
Themed kits filled with books and activities are distributed to Paulding County families through the My Little Library Program led by Get Paulding Reading.
Cherokee FOCUS recently celebrated 20 years as the county’s Georgia Family Connection Collaborative bringing the community together to accomplish mutual goals that better the lives of children and families.