Editorial

From the Desk of Gaye Morris Smith
Executive Director

Targeting Education Efforts to the Child, the Family and the Entire Community

Welcome to the August 2003 issue of Connected, Family Connection Partnership's bimonthly e-magazine. This issue focuses on a "Back to School" theme, educating the child, the family, and the community as a whole. Although early childhood efforts from birth to age 5 are proving vital to a child's future, successful education efforts shouldn't stop there.

Efforts should focus on building family success and preparedness for the future by educating all family members, regardless of age, with lifelong learning opportunities in literacy, job-readiness training, and financial education. Additionally, we should include educating communities regarding what kind of community setting is necessary to produce positive results for children and families.

In this issue, you'll find news and information on education initiatives that are reaching young and old. Our Best Practices and Results section features information from a recent poll showing that the public is generally misinformed about the well-being of children in the U.S. And as usual, our Resources section reveals the latest research, tools and information to help children, families and communities succeed.

As we wrap up our first year of publishing Connected, we are proud of our successes in Georgia's communities; yet we still have much work to do. Whether our literacy efforts are directed toward young children, adolescents and teens, or young and older adults, we all can enhance the quality of life in Georgia by building stronger, more successful communities through education. As always, we encourage you to share your stories of successes as we continue to work for our children, families and communities.

On a special note, don't forget to check out the latest on our 2003 Family Connection Biennial Conference in October, including an exciting announcement of Judge Glenda A. Hatchett as our keynote speaker.