About Us
Our mission is to improve the well-being and health conditions of families through a collaborative system of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual supports.
Our Over-Arching Goal: All Children Will Succeed in School and in Life
We pursue that goal by addressing the root causes of problems, building on cultural and other strengths, pooling resources, engaging an extraordinary diversity of community members, and committing to a long-term process of planning, implementation, and evaluation.
Using a family-centered approach, schools, health and human service agencies, business, the faith community, law enforcement, nonprofit organizations, civic clubs, and others work together with families, focusing on academics, physical and mental health, nurturing parenting, economic success, and community service. We tap existing resources, streamline systems to be more efficient and effective, and initiate new projects like those listed below.
Our Partners
Department of Family & Children Services, Public Health, Dublin Housing Authority, Department of Juvenile Justice, Chamber of Commerce, individual businesses, Juvenile Court, Dublin Police Department, Laurens County Sheriff, Department, Department of Labor, Boys & Girls Club, Heart of Georgia Healthy Start, Heart of Georgia United Way, Care Management Organizations, Local Boards of Education, Communities In Schools of Laurens County, Youth Recovery Community Center, WINGS Domestic Violence Shelter, Court Appointed Special Advocates, Community Action Agency, Dublin/Laurens County Teen Court, Oconee Fall Line Technical College, Middle Georgia State College, City and County Governments, and many others.
Our most important partners are the families whose children we are serving.
Some of the projects that have been initiated through this process:
- Pre-K Program
- Early Head Start
- Homeless Education program
- Anti-truancy initiative
- Nutrition and health insurance outreach
- Summer Youth Program
- Community Partnership for Protecting Children
- Various welfare-to-work strategies
- Community Education Summit
- Some of Our Results
Working in partnership with families, we have tackled intractable problems like teen pregnancy, child abuse and neglect, school dropout, and physical and mental health disparities, with implementation by the partners (School District, Health Department, DFCS, Advantage, et al.).
Working together, our partners have seen remarkable results, but also, have realized that we still have work to do. For example:
- Teen pregnancy – still on roller coaster ride– although programs in place, our rates are still rising – from 37.2% in 2006 to 43.6% in 2010.
- We pulled together our partners to strategize about truancy; within five years of implementation of the strategies, the number of students absent more than fifteen days have declined from 8.6% in 2007 to 7.7% in 2011.
- Through the implementation of programs and collaboration with community partners, we have seen an increase in our high school graduation rate: 66.7% in 2006 to 77.1% in 2010.
- With the leadership of Public Health in collaboration with other partners, we are still working to decrease the percentage of low birthweight. Our goal was 10.2% by 2012; however, as of 2011 our rate was 11.1%.
- Through efforts and collaboration with Department of Children and Family Services and our local Prevent Child Abuse Coalition, child abuse and neglect rates have declined remarkably from 21.6 per 1000 in 2006 to 8.3 per 1000 in 2010.
The Future
Our success is our partners’ success – we bring them together, they develop and implement the strategies. Our most important partners are the families whose children are being served.
Please join with us through financial support (tax deductible) and/or active participation to achieve our goal: All children will succeed in school and in life.
About Georgia Family Connection
Georgia Family Connection is the only statewide network of its kind in the country with partners in all 159 counties working toward measurably better outcomes for our children, families, and communities. This gives us a unique vantage point—not only to see the big picture—but also to operate effectively at a local level.
We disentangle the mess of barriers, service gaps, and inefficiencies obscuring progress for our most vulnerable families. We do that by connecting our partners to resources, helping coordinate and manage efforts, and empowering our communities to craft local solutions based on local decisions.
Georgia Family Connection Partnership (GaFCP) represents and promotes Georgia Family Connection’s work, provides expertise in planning and governance, administers the state-appropriated funds for the local Collaboratives, sets standards of excellence, and helps Collaboratives evaluate their progress.
The state’s designated KIDS COUNT grantee, GaFCP also provides state agencies and policymakers with current, reliable data they need to inform decisions about improving conditions for the communities they serve.
Our Work
At Georgia Family Connection, we work to ensure that all children are healthy, primed for school, and succeed when they get there; families are stable, self-sufficient, and productive; and communities are vibrant, robust, and thriving.
None of these result areas stand in isolation. They overlap. By collaborating across sectors to address them, we nurture children and families who thrive in vibrant communities—everywhere. Because we work toward measurably better outcomes for everyone.
