Expert Article: Building a Brighter Future for Our Children: The Power of Action and Support
Expert Article: Building a Brighter Future for Our Children: The Power of Action and Support
In the words of Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Nelson Madela, “Our children are our greatest treasure. They are our future.” We, at the Rome Floyd County Commission on Children and Youth (RFCCCY), couldn’t agree more. Every child deserves the best start in life, but for many, challenges such as having a safe and stable home life, access to health and childcare, poverty, neglect, abuse, and exploitation; threaten their well-being and future prospects. The world we create depends on the children, the “village” that we raise. But, it’s not just a child’s parents who make a difference, it is our collective responsibility to support and protect children and give them the resources and opportunities they need to reach their full potential.
The RFCCCY was established in 1989 to empower our children and youth to reach their full potential through collaboration, advocacy and visibility. We do this by partnering with agencies and families to ensure that Floyd County’s children grow up to be productive citizens.
Over the past 35 years, we have been a pillar in this community providing collaborative support to our nonprofit partners, engaging with and showing the needs of the community to our industry leaders and joining forces with our local concerned citizen for the purpose of mitigating the issues that children and families in our community face.
We know that many industries, healthcare systems, faith-based, and civic organizations want to be a part of the solution, but don’t know how.
We will highlight some examples of sector-specific opportunities that can be done to help reduce some of the challenges in order to create safe, stable, and nurturing relationships and environments (please note this list is not intended to represent everything that can be done).
• Industry/Business
- Implement Family Friendly Work Policies that are advantageous for the employee and employer. (Ex: flexible work hours during school breaks so families can spend more time with their children, allow parent to take off to attend their child(rens) field trips, parent/teacher conferences without losing points).
- Become more knowledgeable about the impact of low wages on the families of fulltime employees who are living at or below the federal poverty level
• Faith and Civic
- Become involved in the Floyd County Collaborative Meetings that meet the 1st Thursday of every month at 1:30 PM. Request to be added to the weekly Collaborative Collection Newsletter to receive news, updates and advocacy activities aimed at strengthening families and developing solutions to local challenges.
Email rfcccy1989@gmail.com to request to be added to the newsletter email list.
• Healthcare Systems
- Continue to expand telemedicine services
- Build relationships with residents of underserved communities by locating the community gate keeper and together, start canvassing the neighborhood in order to expand healthcare access in THEIR neighborhood
• Post Secondary Education
- Partner with community-based organizations, transportation & childcare providers to address the transportation & childcare barriers faced by those seeking post-secondary education.
The Rome-Floyd County Community is very fortunate to have many family and youth serving organizations and individual champions who work together to form a collective impact that benefit all children and families that reside here. Together, we can raise & increase awareness to Build A Hopeful Future.
LaDonna Collins
Executive Director
Rome Floyd County Commission in Children and Youth
706.844.4952
