The Georgia Family Connection Partnership (GaFCP) held another community meeting on March 29, with 28 representatives of various charities, businesses and service organizations present.
The meeting started by reviewing the amended FY24 Annual Plan proposal. The plan was accepted with an amendment that the “Children absent more than 15 days from school” indicator would specify unexcused absences.
“This plan is more generalized than we would typically like it to be, but it helps us understand where we are,” GaFCP Regional Manager Adam Swymer said. “My expectation is that you’ll implement it.”
The next step involved small group discussions of four topics – community needs assessment, an after-school program, summer meals, and an initiative for youth called “Teen Maze.”
Meeting participants worked through the questions and at the end of the discussion each group briefly reported on the highlights of their conversations.
The conclusion of the group discussing the after-school program found the biggest obstacle to having this program currently was finding grant money for it.
Such a program existed before in a form of the Boys and Girls Club, and it could be revived, provided the availability of funding, especially to cover the substantial costs of transportation.
The findings of the group that discussed summer meals suggested the benefits of having a bus delivering food to pick-up locations as it was doing before Covid.
Identifying exact needs may be possible by keeping track of the need throughout the school year and through communication between different groups. The group identified a few things that would help in accomplishing this goal the provision of transportation, involvement of the school nutritionist, as well as that of churches and grocery stores. Both federal funding and grant money could be required as well.
Discussion of the community needs assessment resulted in a requirement to identify the highest-need areas in the community based on information from different groups and existing assessments. The idea was to possibly survey different community groups, local governments, and schools. The group also concluded it would require at least three months to make progress but noted a lot of resources already exist.
The group discussing Teen Maze concluded that involving appropriate community partners is required in order to have this activity in place.
The tentative plan is to organize it next spring and hopefully have it as an annual event. A lot of materials are already available, the discussion participants noted, but the target age group remains in question. The first step in accomplishing it would be forming a committee, and another big step would be getting the approval of the Board of Education.
The next Putnam County Family Connection Collaborative meeting will take place at noon on May 3, at The Plaza Art Center in Eatonton. It is open to the public.
For more information visit online at putnam.gafcp.org.