The Putnam County Family Connection Collaborative met once more on Feb. 1, at The Plaza Arts Center in Eatonton.
More than 30 people attended, including representatives from the local educational system, healthcare sector, non-profits and churches, and community members. After a brief welcome and introductions were made, a description of the responsibilities of the Collaborative came from Georgia Family Connection Partnership (GaFCP) Regional Manager Adam Swymer.
He spoke about the Collaborative Annual Plan, presenting a description and examples of the functional types, governance types, desired outcomes, indicators, strategy statements and activity types, as well as documenting and monitoring progress.
Swymer concluded by recapping the issues highlighted from the January data review, which included food insecurity, poverty, siloed community, healthcare access and mental healthcare access.
After that, attendees broke into five small groups. The primary topics of the small-group discussion included child and family-related issues that the Collaborative should focus on; if any specific indicators from the data review in January stood out as areas of concern; what ongoing activities, programs and services the Collaborative should support; what internal activities the Collaborative needs to ensure it functions well and does the job; and what other people or organizations need to be engaged.
Each group presented a summary of its findings to the larger group. The greatest concern brought up by all groups was mental health and the need for more resources to deal with it. The second-largest concern was poverty and things that go hand in hand with it – nutrition and employment.
Other issues mentioned were the language barrier caused by the increase in the Hispanic population, substance abuse, and readiness for life in general.
“The kids that are graduating today are not ready for life. They are not able to organize, not ready to plan. Resources should be available for that group to get them ready for life. Not just college because the college kids need that, too,” the presenter from one group stated.
“One of the biggest things that we need is an afterschool program providing resources for mental health, tutoring, or whatever issues are. Before Covid, the Boys and Girls Club did that. They’re not active here at this point,” mentioned a presenter from another group.
“I think that one of the biggest issues we are facing is that there are services out there that we don’t know about and what they can do for us,” a third presenter added.
Following group discussions and summaries, various attendees announced upcoming events of their organizations and explained the services their organizations provided.
Lastly, Swymer outlined that the next steps in the annual planning process would be to convene a meeting in mid-February to create the annual plan proposal for presentation at a regular monthly Collaborative meeting in March for feedback and edits.
Local offices of Georgia Family Connection, named “collaboratives,” provide its partners with access to the resources they need and help the communities to find local solutions. Putnam County Family Connections meets monthly. Its meetings are open to all community members.
For more information visit online at putnam.gafcp.org.