Chatham-Savannah Youth Futures Authority
601 East 66th Street
Suite 101
Savannah, GA 31405
P.O. Box 14317, Savannah, GA 31416
Phone: 912.352.7054 ~ Fax: 912.352.7451
Edward Chisolm, Executive Director
YFA Collaborative Meeting
AUTHORITY MEMBERS --
The next collaborative meeting will be held on June 11 at 4:00 p.m. at the Lewis Cancer & Research Pavilion.
Teen Maze Event-2013
A mini-Teen Maze event was held on April 30 at the Live Oak Southwest Chatham Library. 9th grade students from New Hampstead and Windsor Forest High Schools participated in a drunk driving simulation, as well as toured vehicles from various Chatham County operations such as CEMA, a helicopter for mosquito control, a marine patrol vessel, and mounted patrol horses.
The usual full-scale Teen Maze event is being scheduled for later this year.
Savannah Ready, Set, READ!
The Savannah Ready, Set, READ! is a component of the community level of the local Grade Level Reading campaign. In partnership with Live Oak Public Libraries, a Literacy Drive was conducted from late June to early July in which there was a goal of collecting 2,000 children books for community youth.
Thanks to the temendous support of our partners and the community, we were able to collect approx 1,800 books.
We express a sincere Thank You to all who helped support this effort.
Coastal Drug Free Communities Coalition
With support from the United Way of the Coastal Empire, the mission of the Coastal Drug Free Communities Coalition is to bring partners together to prevent and reduce substance abuse in our community. The coalition has produced an information rack card, and is gearing up for more community awareness projects in the near future.
Child Abuse and Neglect Coalition
With support from the United Way of the Coastal Empire, the purpose of the Child Abuse and Neglect Coalition is to both educate our community on and address the issues related to this problem. View the rack card that further explains the coalition’s purpose and data on child abuse and neglect. This group is preparing for a major community awareness event in April 2013.
YFA Celebrates 25 Years!
YFA celebrated 25 years of impacting the lives of children, youth, and families at a Silver Anniversary Gala event held on March 9.
A sincere Thank You to ALL who helped us celebrate this moment!
View event highlights.
Georgia Family Connection Partnership congratulates YFA on 25 Years of collaboration and service to children, youth, and families.
View acknowledgement.
Continuum of Development and Care
Through the mandate that came with the creation of the Chatham-Savannah Youth Futures Authority (YFA) as the collaborative body in Chatham County that addresses issues that affect children, youth, and families, the Authority has been charged with the responsibility of assessing programs, services, and supports that exist in our community, or are needed, in order to achieve its vision that: “Every child will be born healthy, grow up healthy, be free from abuse and neglect, and become a literate, productive, economically self-sustaining citizen.”
Realizing the importance of having a baseline and framework established to allow the Authority to have a comprehensive picture of the programs, services, and supports that either exist, or are needed, in our community that directly relate to the developmental stages from prenatal/infancy through age 19, the creation of the Continuum of Development and Care (COD) was identified as one of the community outcomes.
The COD is an instrument that will identify the physical, mental, and social requirements for each developmental stage for children and youth. It also addresses the needs, supports, and services that both exist in the Chatham-Savannah community, as well as the ones that are needed. The specific developmental stages targeted at the time work began on this project were prenatal, childhood, and adolescence. These stages cover the age span from prenatal/infancy through age 19. A sub-committee, with a working committee for each of the three developmental stages, was formed to flesh out the programs, services, and supports that currently exist in our community and how they relate to the developmental stages. Also identified were barriers and areas where services and supports are needed.
For a considerable period of time, the committees and sub-committees worked towards the completion of the COD. As work started, the complexity, volume, and intense magnitude of the project was quickly realized. The work groups thoroughly reviewed and assessed appropriate logic models to use for outlining and describing the COD across the targeted developmental stages. Realizing that the COD will always be a work in progress as information and data are updated, what we have presently reflects the work that has been completed to date.
The COD report executive summary and workgroup report are available as separate documents. The Resource Guide is to result in a comprehensive outline of programs, supports, and services concentrated in the Chatham-Savannah community. This guide will require ongoing maintenance and updating. The present version is available under the agency resource reports, and reflects the information and data entered into the databases. The current information contained in these resource reports is not complete, and will be updated and/or modified as work continues on refining the completed COD document.