Community Partnerships are decision-making entities, broadly representative of a county, or multi-county, that partner with state agencies to plan,develop, finance and monitor strategies to achieve specific Core Results.
Caring Communities is Missouri’s system reform initiative to achieve the Core Results through Community Partnerships.
The Core Results are:
Children & Families Safe
Children & Families Healthy
Children Ready to Enter School
Children & Youth Succeeding in School
Youth Ready to Enter the Work Force & Become Productive Citizens
Parents Working.
Our Strategy is to:
Actively involve communities in decisions which affect their well being.
Bring services closer where families live & children attend school
Use dollars more flexibly & effectively to meet the needs of the families
Be accountable for results.
The Principles of Community Partnership:
Families are key to children’s success
Communities are supports for families
Good schools, supports and service build strong communities
Economic vitality of a community is essentialfor good schools supports and services.
There are 21 Community Partnerships in Missouri. Washington County Community Partnership is your local Partnership. It is the umbrella organization for several community programs listed below.
EDUCARE of Washington County is a program funded by the Missouri Department of Social Services (www.dss.state.mo.us) and designed to improve and enhance early childcare and primary education for children 0-3 years of age. EDUCARE offers workshops, training and assistance to childcare providers, teachers, and daycare centers. EDUCARE empowers childcare providers with one-on-one training tailored to meet individual needs. EDUCARE offers: Story time at your facility, a resource/lending library with books, educational toys, games, and videos. Also offered is technical assistance and local training hours for childcare providers to maintain state licensing and accreditation, and to equalize the learning environment for all children in Washington County. Educational field trips for children and a support network for providers to share ideas and information as well as problem solving.
Smiley Face Oral Health Program: Americorp VISTA and the Washington County Community Partnership are making a joint effort to put in place more attainable dental health resources and sustainable dental programs within Washington County. Data was gathered regarding the dental health of school-aged children. This information will be compiled and compared to data from other counties in the state. One of the goals is to educate children/parents regarding good oral hygiene. The program is called Smiley Faces and has a resource list of dental providers that take Medicaid and/or are on sliding fee scales. Smiley Faces provides dental screening and fluoride varnish applications to
K-6 graders in Washington County Schools.
C.O.P.E. (Community Outreach Prevention Education) is a 4 year prevention project funded through the Missouri Department of Mental Health Alcohol and Drug Administration to research and develop county-wide programs to reduce risky drinking (underage and binge) in 12-25 year olds. C.O.P.E. offers Guiding Good Choices, which is a free 5-week parenting class that on focuses on helping parents better communicate with their children, and to teach their children to make good choices. The Positive Action program is a character education curriculum focusing oncharacter education, life skills and substance use prevention that is being implemented in schools for 7th graders and up. There are four committees contained inside the larger C.O.P.E. coalition. Those committees are Enforcement Committee (focusing on enforcement of existing laws/ordinances regarding risky behavior), Treatment/Health Committee (focusing on treatment and health issues of our target youth), Community Committee (focusing on youth and family activities and education for the community on substance abuse prevention) and Schools Committee (focusing on Positive Action and other activities C.O.P.E. might be able to assist with). C.O.P.E. coalition and its committees are also focusing on data collection regarding alcohol use/abuse and consequences for this risky behavior of our youth in Washington County.
Missouri Partnerships for Reentry assists in the successful societal reentry of ex offenders and their families into Washington County. Washington County is home to over 500 ex-offenders. These individuals find themselves burdened with many challenges. Missouri Partnerships for Reentry, in collaboration with Americorp VISTA, addresses challenges by developing collaborative relationships with organizations on the community level. The goal of this program is to build, maintain and expand an ex-offender Reentry Advisory Group. Job fairs are held every six months to help ex offenders gain employment and to develop job skills. A support group is being established to provide peer counseling to address reentry challenges. A referral guide specific to ex-offender needs is available.
The Working Partnership has a goal to identify the barriers TANFrecipients face, which prevents them from meeting the work requirements set forth by the Family Support Division. After identification of such barriers, the Working Partnership can provide each individual with information and resources to aide in overcoming the barriers. There is a Work Support Team, which is a partnership of public and community based organizations that provide a deeper expertise when multiple barriers are being addressed. The work support team meets monthly. The Peer Work Support Group is available to individuals receiving TANF benefits. Opportunities are given for informal peer-to-peer discussions, and information sharing about job activity experiences, barriers they have overcome, and lessons learned. Each meeting features a short presentation on topics of the groups choice. Light refreshments are served at each session. There is also a Message Center located at the Washington County Community Partnership office that is a community job-support center. Listing of share-riders to work or school (20-40 miles away), job openings, announced programs and services available to TANF recipients, and resume building information are all displayed. There is a computer and internet access available for use job searching also.
