About Us
Who We Are
Controlled at the community level, Family Connection is present in every county in Georgia. It is the largest statewide network of communities in the nation that have made a commitment to improve results for children and families. Communities In Schools, present in fifty Georgia communities and over 2,000 communities in the U.S., also controlled at the local level, is the nation’s largest dropout prevention initiative. For the last two years, Worth magazine named Communities In Schools one of the 100 best nonprofits in the U.S.
In our county, Family Connection and Communities In Schools are the same organization. We are a partnership of many organizations working with families to research the needs of children and families in our community, and to work together to address those needs.
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.
A Few of Our Outstanding Partners
Bleckley County School System, Department of Family & Children Services, South Central Health District, Bleckley County Health Department, Department of Juvenile Justice, Cochran/Bleckley Chamber of Commerce, Cochran Police Department, individual businesses, Bleckley County Sheriff, Bleckley County Extension Service, Citizens Bank of Cochran, Cochran Bank and Trust, Giddens and Bennett, CPA, Ruth Baptist Church, Davis Propane
Our most important partners are the families whose children we are serving.
Some of the projects that have been initiated through this process include
- 21st Century Community Learning Centers – Comprehensive after school services
- Drug Free Communities
- Mentoring – One on one relationship with an adult role model
- Prevention Education
- Abstinence Education and Youth Development
- Mental Health Services
- School Based Health Center Initiative
- Eyeglasses, School Supplies, Basic Needs Provision
Our Strategies
- Ensure that at-risk students have access to school based enrichment, remediation and intervention activities in order to graduate from high school.
- Ensure that local students and their families have access to on-going education and related resources (school and community-based) that promote healthy lifestyles in order to ensure high school graduation.
- Ensure that local youth have access to community based youth development opportunities in order to ensure high school graduation.
- Ensure essential support services for at-risk/vulnerable families to improve their stability and remove barriers to the children succeeding in school and subsequently graduating from high school.
- Ensure that vulnerable families improve their stability by having access to educational opportunities that strengthen family functioning.
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 that all Bleckley County residents will successfully complete their high school education or obtain their GED.
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.
