Collaborative News

Collaboratives Come Together for Hurricane Victims

Editor's Note: Family Connection collaboratives across Georgia recently stepped up to the plate to assist displaced hurricane victims in many ways. This first in a series of articles tells only a few tales from several counties. Look for more stories of assistance from Family Connection collaboratives to follow in upcoming issues of Connected e-zine.

Bibb
Although the county does not have United Way 2-1-1 services, Community Partnership, the local Family Connection collaborative, helped coordinate efforts with churches that helped relocate families. The collaborative also worked with its local DFCS office.

Bryan
Bryan County Family Connection served as a resource for relief efforts. The local public health department and area ministerial association offered services.

Burke
The Burke Community Partnership provided assistance to families by donating book bags filled with school supplies to displaced children who enrolled in Burke County schools. We also donated clothes, food and money collected through a drive at the local WalMart.

Butts
Butts County Life Enrichment Team served as a point of contact for assistance for Hurricane Katrina evacuees. Because of their proximity to Henry and Newton counties, where shelters were located, the collaborative supported area needs.

Calhoun
The Calhoun County Family Connection Collaborative served as a point of contact. Local schools collected blankets, pillows and hygiene care packages.

Catoosa
The Catoosa Family Collaborative served as a point of contact. Many families received help from local schools and the DFCS office. We also distributed copies of our resource directory for contact information for needed resources.

Dade
DADE FIRST-Family Connection served as a point of contact. The collaborative also provided school supplies, paper goods, and resource information sheets with contact numbers for services, housing, and schools. The group distributed information via the collaborative e-mail list and the Benevolence Task Force ListServe. Local churches brought 10 families through the Franklin Graham Ministries to Dade County, where they were cared for by various congregations. Churches also collected money, clothing and first-aid items.

Decatur, Grady, Seminole and Thomas counties
The counties combined collaborative efforts with DFACS, Archbold Hospital, local physicians, hotels, churches, banks, businesses, the general public and the media. Churches prepared food. The local Red Cross established a canteen with canned foods, baby items and personal hygiene items, and issued disbursing orders for their clients to go to a local bank to cash checks and assist with immediate needs.

Effingham
The Effingham Family Connection Commission served as a point of contact and worked with local churches, the United Way, and other organizations. The collaborative also referred calls to their local United Way 2-1-1 information and referral system.

Floyd and Rome counties
Floyd and Rome counties were mobilized with centralized efforts. The housing authority placed families in temporary housing. A local Red Cross shelter and resource center were established. The collaborative pooled partners from across the area, named the relief efforts "Rome Kares," and established a Web site to share information.

Glynn
The United Way of Coastal Georgia, which is the Glynn County collaborative, served as the point of contact to coordinate all local efforts.

Gwinnett
Right after the storm, the Gwinnett Coalition for Health and Human Services was inundated with calls from the media and public about where to go for help. The collaborative provided information immediately, and it was published via their information and alert system. A week later, the collaborative coordinator attended a meeting at the United Way to get a status report from agencies about what they were doing and the need to help coordinate efforts. Later that week, the collaborative received news that the county had opened a Red Cross mega-center in Gwinnett. There also were many efforts by local people, nonprofits and churches. The collaborative acted as a depository for information through the Gwinnett Helpline and collected data daily for the numbers of people served and unserved. The collaborative also started an effort to partner with a community foundation to address the evacuees' long-range needs and effect on the local community from the relief effort.

Henry
A local church adopted 68 evacuees from New Orleans who were staying at a hotel in Stockbridge. Most of them had nothing but the clothes they were wearing when they left New Orleans. The church donated clothing and other necessities. Connecting Henry, the Henry County Family Connection collaborative, invited a local lady who was trying to organize assistance to their meeting to share her concerns. The group came together to do whatever they could to help.

Houston
The Red Cross established a "one-stop shop" at the local DFCS office with representatives from several agencies, including mental health, the Department of Labor, the health department, and others, for Katrina survivors to access services easily.

Jasper
The Jasper County Family Connection served as a point of contact.

McIntosh
The McIntosh County Family Connection served as the point of contact for information regarding resources and referrals for hurricane evacuees.

Mitchell
Mitchell County Children and Youth Collaborative assisted by coordinating an effort to collect relief help to send to Pascagoula, Miss. The collaborative established a collection site for the local community to donate goods and other resources. A collaborative partner in Camilla, the Boys and Girls Club, helped with efforts, along with the District Attorney for the South Georgia Judicial Circuit, Joe Mulholland. The collaborative answered calls for resource referrals as they come in and worked with their local school system to help displaced children get back in school.

Paulding
The Paulding Collaborative for Children and Families worked with various agencies to help families.

Polk
The Polk County Council for Children and Families helped keep the community informed and involved with needs for evacuees by forwarding information collected to partners in the community. The county does not have an American Red Cross chapter but helped coordinate efforts. The collaborative also coordinated efforts with local churches.

Quitman
The Quitman County Family Connection served as a point of contact.

Toombs
The Toombs County Family Connection worked with its local United Way, Salvation Army and Red Cross to collect more than more than $15,000 of supplies for the hurricane victims. The local Salvation Army Canteen distributed food in the Gulf Port area of Mississippi. The local radio station, technical college, and area citizens contributed three 50-foot tractor trailers of relief supplies, and collaborative members helped sort and pack the final trailer. Youth from the collaborative's mentoring and prevention services also helped in packing the donations. The local MHDDAD office provided health information for the region.