Tift County Commission on Children and Youth--Executive Summary

Executive Summary

Description of County
Description of Collaborative
Community Assessment
Vision
Goals and Benchmarks
Funding and Resources
Community Engagement

Description of County

Tift County is located in rural south central Georgia. The population of Tift County is 38,407 of which 35% is minority. Seven point seven percent of the population is Hispanic or Latino with approximately 56% of the Hispanic population speaking English less than "very well".

Tift County has a high rate (more than 60%) of families starting at risk of poverty with approximately 31% of all children in poverty. Single-headed families with children living in poverty are 65.7% compared to the state rate of 44.3%. Of every 100 babies born in Tift County 40 are born to mothers with less than 12 years of education. Only 63.8 out of 100 students complete high school. The median household income for Tift County is $29,926. Approximately 50 out of every 100 students are eligible for reduced price lunches. Tift County has shown a noticeable increase in substantiated child abuse and neglect reports with 22 per 1000 children ages birth to 18.

The local economy is supported by agriculture and small industry. Tift County has one hospital that serves as the regional hospital for adjoining counties.

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Description of Collaborative

The Tift County Commission on Children and Youth (TCCCY) was formed in June of 1990 to serve as the collaborative body coordinating services and programs for children and families. The TCCCY serves as the lead coordinator for many of the grant proposals and has facilitated over three million dollars in competitive funding since 1989 for literacy, child care, juvenile justice, parenting, adolescent substance abuse, early intervention, prekindergarten, and health care programs. All of the proposals have been characterized by public input, partnership building, and creative and shared use of resources, and have been designed to fill a gap in the community as identified by the collaborative partners.

The collaborative started as a small group of committed volunteers in 1990. The TCCCY has a track record of commitment to collaboration. From the beginning this collaborative has worked to establish a shared vision, build public and political will for the vision, implement the vision, and evaluate the progress and outcomes.

Monthly meetings have been held since 1990 and a bi-monthly newsletter is published.

The governing body is the Board of Trustees consisting of at least 20 elected members representing the broad interest of the public to include members from public and non profit agencies, governmental bodies and agencies, businesses, and the community at large. An Executive Committee is elected from the Board of Trustees.

Collaborative partners for the TCCCY include members from Plight, Tift Co. Recreation Dept., Big Brothers Big Sisters, The Exchange Club, Tift Co. DFCS, Mother's Love Child Care Center, Tift Co. Extension Service, Tift Regional Medical Center, Tift County Commissioners, ABAC, CPES, Tift Housing Authority, District Attorney, Tift Co. Health Dept, Tift Co. Sheriff's Office, Juvenile Justice, Tift Co. Council on Child Abuse, Tift Co. Board of Education, United Way, Tifton Police Dept., Literacy Volunteers, City of Tifton, KAC/Child Care Resource & Referral, Tifton Headstart, Tift Co. Pre-K, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Chamber of Commerce, Behavioral Health, Albritton Beaumont Funeral Chapel (coroner) and Community Representatives.

The monthly meetings are a source of information, networking, and an opportunity for collaborative members to bring up issues of importance. Community partners represent families, public sector organizations, businesses, the arts, and elected officials. Any agency or organization that works with children and families as well as members of the community as a whole are encouraged to participate in the collaborative.

Much of the collaborative work occurs in small groups, convened for a particular issue or event. Workgroups are formed as necessary to address a particular issue or to organize an event in the community. At this time, we have committees for Safe Places & Caring Adults and for Youth Leadership.

The role of the collaborative is seen by the partners as: a broker for resources and funding, the entity to facilitate comprehensive planning for children and families, an entity with the flexibility that state agencies do not have to help fill service gaps by designing and implementing new services.

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Community Assessment

Our Executive Board met and decided the best way to conduct a needs assessment would be with a community survey. Our community collaborative members provided input to the design and content of the survey, completed a survey, and helped distribute the surveys in the community. Surveys for adults and students were distributed and completed from December 2002 through February 2003. Adult surveys were distributed to all school employees, civic groups, Housing Authority residents, church groups, local agencies, and at public locations to include a diverse group of participants. Of the 500 surveys distributed we received 328 (68%) completed surveys.

Student surveys for ages 10 to 20 were completed by church groups, Housing Authority residents, Teen Leadership groups, alternative school students and to the general public at the movie theater. Out of 325 surveys we had 221 (68%) returned.

Based on the results of our survey most families felt there are strengths in the religious, community involvement, public education and family togetherness within our county. The challenges for Tift County were identified in high school drop out rates, teen pregnancy rates, and child abuse and neglect rates.

Based on the results of the community survey and discussions in our collaborative planning meetings we will focus on inventorying and evaluating our services and programs to identify the service gaps.

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Vision

The citizens are healthy, happy, secure, literate, and responsible. The community cooperates to insure that everyone is productive, motivated, and creative.

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Goals and Benchmarks

Collaborative Development

Goal 1: TCCCY will develop new collaborative partnerships with unrepresented sectors of the community.

Benchmark Objective 1.1:

Benchmark Objective 1.2:

Goal 2: To develop and implement a Targeted Case Management system to address existing service gaps in the community.

Benchmark Objective 2.1:

Benchmark Objective 2.2:

Systems Change

Goal 1: TCCCY will inventory the quantity and quality of services to integrate these services to families where gaps exist.

Benchmark Objective 1.1:

Benchmark Objective 1.2:

Goal 2: Service components from various partners will be integrated to maximize resources and strengthen supports for children and families.

Benchmark Objective 2.1:

Benchmark Objective 2.2:

Results for Children and Families

Goal 1: All children in Tift County will graduate on time.

Benchmark Objective 1.1:

Benchmark Objective 1.2:

Goal 2: All children will be free of abuse, neglect and domestic violence.

Benchmark Objective 1.1:

Goal 3: All families will have access to quality, affordable and accessible childcare and early learning opportunities in Tift County.

Benchmark Objective 3.1:

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Funding and Resources

Our collaborative members are supported by local, state, and federal monies. Some of our collaborative members such as Tift Co. DFCS, Tift Co. Health Dept. and Tift Co. School System are government funded agencies and will continue to be so with the enhancement of additional local, state and federal grant monies as they become available. Many of our members are grant funded or rely on grants/fund raising/donations to continue operation.

Some of the grant monies being utilized by our collaborative members include: Family Connection, DHR, AHYD, WIA-School to Work Grant, GELI Funding, TANF funds, Safe & Drug Free Schools, DJJ, DOE, Administration for Children & Families Federal Fund, USDA Free & Reduced Lunch Fund, DFCS/CAPS childcare subsidies, CJCD VAWA, GCCC/DHR, Dept. of Community Affairs, Federal Corp. for National and Community Service, CTF, BBBS of America and other sources. Some of our agencies receive monies from foundations such as Target and Tifton Aluminum. The collaborative plans to implement Children At Risk Targeted Case Management.

Local funding comes from local and county government, United Way, The Exchange Club, private donations, and fundraising. Our community is dedicated to improving the quality of life for our citizens and actively seeks opportunities for funding to enhance our community.

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Community Engagement

Tift County Commission on Children and Youth will focus on providing the community with results-based accountability. The collaborative will be working to show positive results in reducing high school dropout, teen pregnancy, and child abuse and neglect. Throughout the next three years the collaborative will also focus on engaging more representatives from families, churches and businesses.