Family Connection Partnership

8th Biennial Family Connection Conference
The Classic Center, Athens, Georgia
October 16 - 18

The conference celebrates the successes of our collaboratives and offers opportunities to network with professionals and peers, meet new partners in the state and local government, and learn about the latest research, proven practices and thought-provoking ideas from experts in child and family well-being.

Conference speakers will include:
• Michael Johnson, a Texas cowboy, author and motivational speaker.
• Naomi Griffith, a storyteller and executive director of Parents and Children Together.
• Kareemah Abdullah, deputy director of technical assistance and training at the National Community Anti-Drug Coalition Institute.

Conference registration will open mid-May. Fees will be $250 for early registration, $300 for regular registration, and $350 for late registration.

Call for Sponsors

Raise awareness of your support for community issues by being a conference sponsor. Open new windows of opportunity to partner with various sectors who are dedicated to community-building. Support general conference activities or take advantage of special sponsorship opportunities. To confirm your support, complete the FC Conference Sponsorship Commitment Form.

Call for Exhibitors

Promote your organization to nearly 700 people who are committed to improving the lives of children and families in Georgia. Boost your marketing exposure to a statewide network of 159 county collaboratives during its biennial celebration of Family Connection. Share information about your products and services to an audience of experts in the field of child and family well-being.

For more details and to reserve your exhibit space, complete the Exhibitor Registration and Exhibitor Contract (original signature required) and return them with your payment via U.S. mail postmarked by August 1.

Georgia Ranks 40th in 2004 KIDS COUNT Data Book

Georgia ranks 40th among all states in a 2004 state-by-state study that reports on the well-being of America's children, up from 47th ten years ago. The 2004 KIDS COUNT Data Book shows that Georgia improved between 1996 and 2001 on eight out of 10 measures that reflect child well-being but worsened in the percentage of low birth weight babies and families with children headed by single parents. This year's report features a focus on the conditions of young adults, ages 18 to 24, at risk of unsuccessful transition from childhood to adulthood. Read the complete press release.

The Family Connection Standards for Excellence in Collaboration and Community Decision-Making provide a framework for insuring quality in local decision-making and a means for strengthening and enhancing collaborative structure and growth.

The pilot year for Standards is state fiscal year 2005 (July 1, 2004 - June 30, 2005). Standards implementation begins July 1, 2005. The draft standards were distributed in December 2004 and the revised standards will be available in June 2005 pending FCP Board approval. A stakeholder group, with representatives from local collaboratives, Partnership staff, and the FCP Board of Directors, is actively engaged in revising and approving the standards.

Revisions are not substantial but are minor modifications necessary during a pilot phase. Collaboratives are encouraged to engage in self-review in preparation for the implementation Year beginning July 1. Community Facilitators and other technical assistance staff can assist collaboratives in the self-review or any areas of need.

For questions regarding the standards, e-mail standards@gafcp.org.

Standards Documents

'Meets Standards' Criteria is a listing of criteria in place for the implementation year beginning July 1, 2005. The levels of 'Proficient' and 'Model of Excellence' will be in effect beginning fiscal year 2007.

Throughout the life of the Family Connection initiative, there have been a number of attempts to link activities to impact. Despite limitations of each attempt (e.g. reliance on existing data, incomplete measures of collaborative processes and program quality) there is growing evidence to suggest linkages do exist, and that adherence to the principles of Family Connection is likely to be a significant contributing factor toward improved outcomes.

During 2003, a study, using case study methodology, was designed to add texture and detail to current data collections in order to test further some of the underlying assumptions of the Theory of Change. Three High Functioning collaboratives (i.e. collaboratives that exemplify the Family Connection model in practice) and three High Impact collaboratives (i.e. collaboratives that have achieved noteworthy outcomes on one or more of their targeted state benchmarks) were studied in depth.

Want to know more about accessing and using KIDS COUNT data? This PowerPoint presentation from the October 21st KIDS COUNT web conference will help you download data, do simple graphing and charting of data and cautions you about using and interpreting data.