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
Savannah Promise Neighborhood
UPDATE! Savannah was not selected as a Promise Neighborhood grantee for 2012; however, we will launch the Savannah Promise Neighborhood in January using the local partners and their commitments toward this initiative. You will be hearing from us!
COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
The next meeting of the SPN Oversight Planning Committee will be announced at a later date.
Emory University School Health Clinic
The requirements for this planning grant have been met. A business plan was completed and is in the stages of being reviewed before it becomes officially authorized. Check this site later for additional information.
Childhood Development Associate (CDA) Program
We are proud to announce that a CDA graduation ceremony was held on November 19 at the First Assembly Church in Garden City. Program participants are now in Phase 2 of the program which should conclude this spring.
YFA Collaborative Meeting
AUTHORITY MEMBERS --
The next collaborative meeting will be FEBRUARY 14 at 4:00 p.m. at the Lewis Cancer Research Pavilion in the 2nd Floor Training Room. Topic Area: TBD
Teen Maze Event-2012
The Teen Maze event for this year will be held March 26-29 at the National Guard Armory. Target population will be first time 8th graders. There will be four event tracks. The goal of the event is to eliminate barriers to students not graduating fom higih school, nd to expose them to career information.
Update on RFPs for St. Pius
Requests for Proposals were solicited for use of the St. Pius facility. The RFP Committee has reviewed the RFPs and will make a recommendation to the Authority Board.
Savannah Receives IBM Grant
The City of Savannah recently received an IBM KidsSmart grant that awarded YFA 30 Young Explorer Little Tikes units to be placed in SCCPSS Pre-K and lower grades classrooms and across selected community centers and child care facilities. YFA was pleased to partner with the SCCPSS on this. This is great news for our early learners and complements our Savannah Promise Neighborhood work. THANK YOU City of Savannah and IBM!
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.