What We Do

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.

Results of Community Partnership

• 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.).
• Teen pregnancy – after increasing annually for many years – began moving downward when our partners developed and implemented a comprehensive, holistic plan starting in 1992, and is now 42% lower;
• We pulled together our partners to strategize about truancy; within three years of implementation of the strategies, the number of students absent more than ten days had declined by 23%;
• Thanks in part to our welfare to work initiatives, led by the Departments of Family & Children Services and Labor, the traditional welfare rolls in our county declined by more than 95%;
• With the leadership of Public Health in collaboration with other partners, childhood immunization has increased by 15%;
  the percentage of babies born healthy (as defined by Public Health) is up by 31%, and
• child poverty is down by 12%.