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News and Events last updated
04-25-08
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Engaging Latino Families
A Learning Day

Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Central Georgia Convention Complex
480 Holiday Circle
Forsyth, Georgia
10 a.m. – 3 p.m.

Audience: Georgia Family Connection coordinators, collaborative members and partners; staff from organizations that work with Latino families

Topics: The Latino culture; Immigration; Perspectives of Latino families; Bringing Latino Families to the Table.

Free admission, lunch on your own, registration requested.

Registration deadline: 5 p.m., May 30, 2008

Click here to register

Download directions

Lunch on your own.

Contact Lakieshia Jones, 404-527-7394 ext 121 or lakieshia@gafcp.org for more information.

Collaborative Webs Basic Training

May 13 or 14, 2008
Macon State College

Attention all new Georgia Family Connection coordinators.

The Collaborative Webs Basic Training is back by popular demand. Register now for this one-day, hands-on workshop that covers the basic skills necessary for populating and maintaining Collaborative Webs.

Complete the registration form and return it by May 2 to Sonya Hope at sonya@gafcp.org

What the Presidential Candidates Are Saying about Our Kids

How do different Presidential candidates stand on issues that affect America’s children? What do they see as government’s role in supporting children and their families? The Child and Family Policy Center recently launched a Web site to inform Iowa voters on where presidential candidates stand on child and family issues. While these policy issues are critically important ones, the Web site notes, they often can be overlooked in campaign literature, candidate forums and debates, candidate issue statements, and press conferences. The Web site provides a wealth of information about presidential candidate positions on child policy issues. The Web site is a one-stop source of information on child policy issues and the 2008 election:

  • Presidential candidates' responses to a survey exclusively on child policy issues.
  • Presidential candidate statements on child policy issues on their own Web sites
  • Presidential candidate responses to other organizational surveys on child-related issues
  • Information on key child policy issues facing the president and Congress
  • Information on how to make voices speaking for children heard in the Iowa Caucuses

Go to www.itsaboutourkids.org.

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Tax Credits for Families

Tax credits can provide thousands of dollars to families struggling to make ends meet. With the economy faltering and families struggling to pay for basic needs such as energy and food, these tax credits are all the more important.

But many low-income families fail to take advantage of these credits simply because they don't know the credits exist. Families must be informed about the credits and claim them on their tax returns in order to receive the money they're entitled to.

The National Women's Law Center (NWLC) has developed a set of easy-to-use resources on the family tax credits that might be helpful to you and to many of the organizations with whom you work and who have direct contact with families who could greatly benefit from these tax credits.   Ensuring that all families take advantage of the full range of tax credits available to them is one way to quickly add significant income to many family budgets. These materials include:

  • Resources for your state, including fliers on the federal and state tax credits and payroll stuffers, in English, Spanish, and other languages.

Visit the NWLC Web site at www.nwlc.org/loweryourtaxes for additional resources.

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100 Best Communities for Young People

Bibb County Named One of the Nation’s 100 Best Communities for Young People by America’s Promise Alliance America’s Promise Alliance (the Alliance), the nation’s largest alliance dedicated to children and youth, in partnership with Capital One, recently announced that Bibb County has been named a winner of its 2008 100 Best Communities for Young People (100 Best) competition.

The 100 Best competition recognizes the 100 outstanding communities across America—large and small, rural and urban—that are the best places for young people to live and grow up. More than 300 communities in all 50 states applied for the honor this year. The 100 winning communities span 37 states.

Bibb County was named as a 100 Best community in large part because of the great progress the county has made on behalf of its young people. We have incredible groups of volunteers and nonprofit partners and collaborative groups that are dedicated to improving the lives of children in our community. These groups and countless volunteers work everyday in our community. Groups such as Big Brothers,

Big Sisters and the Mentor’s Project are providing caring adults for children form single-parent families. The United Way of Central Georgia is working to improve the quality of early childhood education in its community. Bibb County Government has allocated millions in support of youth program with more than $3 million going to a new library. These are just a few examples of the real change agents in our community,” said Gigi Rolfes, executive director of Volunteer Macon.

All communities that completed entries in the 100 Best competition were required to submit detailed information to the Alliance on existing community programs and initiatives that help deliver the Five Promises—resources identified by America’s Promise as being critical to the development of healthy, successful children: caring adults; safe places; healthy start; effective education; and opportunities to help others; to their young people. Applicants were also asked to describe how different sectors of their community come together to deliver the Five Promises and specific efforts and programs developed to ensure that their young people graduate from high school prepared for college and/or the workforce.

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Infant Sleep Safety Training

Attention Child Care Providers: Host an Infant Sleep Safety training at your agency and your staff will earn two DECAL-approved course hours.

Course Objectives:

  • Understand the medical definition of S.I.D.S.
  • Examine the S.I.D.S. statistics for your county
  • Learn the S.I.D.S. Risk Reduction measures for Child Care Providers
  • Review the emergency protocol for assisting an unresponsive infant
  • Become familiar with local, state and national resources for bereaved families and providers

Contact Allison Glover, S.I.D.S. training coordinator, for available training dates. All class materials and Back to Sleep media tools are provided free of charge.

Visit www.allisonglover.com or call 404-862-3824 for more information.

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