What is the community program? It is a collaboration between
Junior League and local community partners to make a measurable
and positive change targeting
a specific need within our community. It is an outcome-based
program designed to see measurable results directly related
to our JLO focus area.
JLO will support the program in
a variety of ways, including: fundraising, volunteer hours,
leadership, etc. Overtime, the goal is to increase
community support while decreasing JLO resources, thus freeing
JLO
for future initiatives.
Community
Program: a collaboration between Junior League and local
community partners to make a measurable and positive change
targeting a specific need within our community.
During the months of September—November,
we have been researching the needs in our community and the
interests of our members and sustainers to help us develop
a community program that is a win-win for our league and
the community. It is an exciting time in our league!
How is the process of developing our community program going?
We are still in the research phase of the process. The membership
focus groups have been concluded. In addition to summarizing the
JLO member and sustainer focus group information, we have also
evaluated a wide range of community needs assessment data, interviewed
a few key community partners, and looked at national data on the
issue of child abuse & neglect prevention.
We have compared
this data to the focus group summaries and are working to find
potential programs that are a good match between the needs of
our membership and the needs of our community. With a few potential
programs identified, we are now interviewing community partners
to learn more about these potential programs and how exactly
JLO
might be able to collaborate on their development and implementation.
Some ideas we are exploring include:
Family Trauma Center: a central location
to serve victims of domestic violence trauma and receive a wide
range of support
services that
might include: mental health counseling, parenting/life skills/wellness
classes, parent mentoring programs, child mentoring programs,
coordination
and referrals into existing community resources, etc.
Child Mental Health Services with Safeplace: in collaboration
with Safeplace, work to expand and develop new services targeting
the
child victims of domestic violence.
Front Porch Campaign: collaborate with community partners
to bring this nationally recognized program to Thurston County.
The
program
brings services and support to at-risk families and children
through neighborhood interventions such as neighborhood based
safe houses,
child care, sick child care, mentoring, parenting and life
skills, enhancing relationships between citizens and local
law enforcement,
etc.
211 Parenting Resource Warm-Line: collaborate with the
Dept of Health and other community partners to develop
a parenting
and
domestic violence focused aspect to the already planned
211 health focused
resource line. Through this resource parents and caregivers
could receive a variety of services that might include:
coordination of community resources and referrals into parenting
related
services,
phone counseling with trained staff on parenting related
issues, home visits from nurses, expansion of existing
hospital services
following birth of child, resource center, etc.
Mockingbird Respite: collaborate with community
partners to bring this national program to Thurston County. This
program offers support
and respite for foster care parents and children and
is designed to reduce the number of foster care placements
and increase
the number of foster parents by addressing the needs
of
both the parents
and
the children in a variety of ways.
Stewards of Children Program: Darkness to
Light: Collaborate with community partners to expand and offer
this adult
training program
designed to educate adults to prevent, recognize and
react responsibly to child sexual abuse.
Drug Court Follow-up Services for Parents: Collaborate
with community partners and the current Drug Court
to offer relevant
and needed
follow-up services to the parents, primarily mothers,
which have graduated from the Drug Court program.
Services might
include:
mental health services, support services, parenting
and life skills courses,
mentoring, referrals into existing community services,
respite care, etc.
What’s Next?
Once we have more information gathered on these potential programs,
we will be able to evaluate each program and how well it matches
our leagues needs and interests.
More information on this will
be available at our General Membership Meetings, in the Communiqué,
and on the website under the Members Only section.
Who Decides Which Program and When?
The decision on which community program we ultimately choose is a
league decision. We will present information on the potential programs
to the league for a vote in March.
Once the specific program as
been selected, the Community Program Committee will begin the
phase of development and collaboration with which ever community
partners
will be involved. As this unfolds, there will be on-going and
diverse opportunities for all members to participate.
How Can I be More Involved in the Community Program?
There are many ways to participate in the Community Program. Ultimately,
each and everyone of us, regardless of our placement, will be contributing
in a very important way to the success of our Community Program.
Some of the more direct ways to be involved include:
1. Community Program Committee Placement
If the idea of working on the continued development and initiation
of our community program interests you, please consider the
new Community Program Committee as a placement for your 2007-2008
JLO year. There will be a small committee with a chair and
a chair-elect for the 2007-2008 year.
A placement on this committee
would be a year-round commitment as work on development
would begin in June and there would likely be some meetings
and work
through the summer months.
The committee members will be
working on setting up the program so all members can participate.The
committee will be primarily dealing with development,
league communication, community communication, funding considerations,
coordination with community partners, joint mission statement
building, collaboration, etc. For more information on
this,
please contact Tanya Murray, murray5dt@comcast.net,
866-6142.
2. Community Program Research Involvement
As we continue to look into all the issues surrounding the development
and initiation of such a large endeavor, there is much to learn.
If
you would like to be a part of this research you should
contact Tanya Murray. Your involvement in this area could include
assistance with internet research, phone interviews with
other
leagues about similar projects, report generation and/or
editing, brainstorming, etc.
Community Program Progress Update As of January 1,
2007
The research on our community program continues. The results from
the research conducted so far, is contained within a detailed Community
Program Research Report. As more information is discovered it will
be added to this report. This report can be found in the Members
Only section of our website, or you can contact Tanya
Murray and
have it, and any updates emailed to you.
We are currently meeting with the community partners who are
connected to each of the potential programs outlined in last
month’s Communiqué. As we meet with each of these
partners we are looking for the following answers:
What would be the mission of such a program, and what would
JLO’s role in that be?
What are the types of volunteer opportunities such a program
would offer our members?
What are the costs in funds & volunteer hours for JLO
in such a program?
Does this program meet the interests of our members?
Who is the population this program would serve?
How will we know this program is successful & how will
we measure this success?
How will project increase community recognition and visibility
for JLO?
Will this project truly have an impact on the reduction
of child abuse and neglect in our community?
We welcome your thoughts and questions on our Community Program.
Together we will build an outstanding program that serves our
community and fulfills us as members.
parent mentoring programs, child mentoring programs,
coordination
and referrals into existing community resources, etc.
the number of foster care placements
and increase
the number of foster parents by addressing the needs
of
both the parents
and
the children in a variety of ways.
108
State Ave.