Over the past several months, the Berrien County Collaborative has raised over $5 million in resources to support our schools to better serve the community. The following initiatives and partnerships outlined below have assisted in the continuation of our organizations mission to Help Children and Families Achieve in Life.
The Board of Education, 21st Century Community Learning Centers, Boys & Girls Clubs of Berrien County, and Department of Human Resources have teamed up to deliver our largest after school initiative to-date.
- The purpose of this partnership is to coordinate $2.4 million in federal, state, and local funds to establish, expand, and sustain our community learning centers that operate during out-of-school hours over the next three years. These programs have three specific purposes for the 450 - Pre-K through 12th graders they serve:
• To provide opportunities for academic enrichment and tutorial services
• To offer students a broad array of additional services, programs, and activities to reinforce and complement the regular academic program; and
• To offer families of students opportunities for literacy and related educational development.
Even Start Family Literacy Program
- The partnership with the Board of Education has led to the opening of our new Even Start Family Literacy Center located on the BOE campus. This program coordinates services with Wiregrass Technical Institute’s GED class participants to help support their academic needs.
- This program is a year-to-year grant that provides $350,000 in federal funds to support local family literacy projects that integrate early childhood education, adult literacy (adult basic and secondary-level education and instruction for English language learners), parenting education, and interactive parent and child literacy activities for low-income families with parents who are eligible for services under the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act and their children from birth through age 7. Teen parents and their children from birth through age 7 also are eligible. All participating families must be those most in need of program services.
Carol White Physical Education Program
- The Carol M. White Physical Education Program provides $750,000 in federal funds through the U.S. Department of Education over the course of three years to initiate, expand, and enhance physical education programs, including after-school programs, for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. The main objectives are to implement programs that help students and schools make progress toward meeting new state physical education standards. The goals of this program are to lower the rates of childhood obesity and diabetes among our students while establishing a culture to sustain a healthy lifestyle.
CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) of the Alapaha Judicial Circuit
- CASA volunteers are appointed by judges to watch over and advocate for abused and neglected children, to make sure they don’t get lost in the overburdened legal and social service system or languish in an inappropriate group or foster home. They stay with each case until it is closed, and the child is placed in a safe, permanent home. For many abused children, their CASA volunteer will be the one constant adult presence—the one adult who cares only for them. This program is charged with serving Atkinson, Berrien, Clinch, Cook, and Lanier Counties’ over 100 children currently in our foster care system due to abuse and or neglect.
Georgia Rural Abstinence (G-RAP) Initiative
- The G-RAP initiative is funded through a federal Community Based Abstinence Education program that has provided $400,000 over the past four years to support programs that are designed to promote abstinence education for adolescents aged 12 through 18. The entire focus of these programs is to educate young people and create an environment within communities that supports teen decisions to postpone sexual activity until marriage. Our Abstinence Coordinator and Physical Education teachers at the Berrien middle and high schools deliver the Choosing the Best, WAIT, and Media Madness curricula to over 1100 students each year. We are in the final year of this grant.
Grants to Reduce Alcohol Abuse
- This program provides $300,000 in federal funds for three years to assist in the development and implementation of an innovative and effective alcohol abuse prevention program for secondary school students. Our program will be housed at the Berrien Academy and High Schools in order to coordinate interdisciplinary activities centered on public service announcements and social-norming campaigns.
Local Partnerships
- United Way payroll deduction program provides approximately $4,500 per year in support for our after school programs.
State Partners
- Georgia Family Connection Partnership - GaFCP works with the county collaboratives to develop strategic plans that set goals and measures/evaluates their improvement over time. Their goals are focused on children being healthy, ready for school, and succeeding in school, as well as helping families be more stable and self-sufficient.
National Partnerships
- Communities In Schools - CIS is the nation's largest dropout prevention organization. The mission of Communities In Schools is to champion the connection of needed community resources with schools to help young people successfully learn, stay in school and prepare for life. This partnership provides $100,000 per year in support through initiatives such as AT&T Foundation, Walmart Foundation, and Bridge Builder.
Community Development Block Grant:
- The Boys & Girls Clubs of Berrien County have been granted a $500,000 CDBG to build a new facility. This grant will help to sustain our mission to deliver after school programs to more children in Berrien County.
Other Collaborative Grant Funded Capacity Building Initiatives
- The MED Project (School-Based Health Clinic) is funded by the Healthcare Georgia Foundation in the amount of $50,000 to developing a rural school-based health clinic model to help serve our students most in need.
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