Letter to the Editor

Addressing needs is still the goal of caring council

To the editor:

I want to clarify the funding issue regarding Caring Communities. Funding has always come to the Community Caring Council, which is the designated community partnership by the state. In reaction to guidelines set forth by the state last year for community partnerships, plans were made to move from school-based service purchase and delivery to community-based facilitation and assessment. The partnerships and relationships that have been formed in the community remain strong and will be integral to our new focus.

We have worked with the schools to make the change and are still providing some support to the Cape Girardeau School District for the coming school year. We are also building on the areas of systems reform that have been accomplished over the past several years to maintain some of the things we had previously been funding. This will be an ongoing activity.

In addition, our focus will be more countywide as we manage a comprehensive community-assessment process and use the results to identify areas where our expertise at problem solving and managing resources can produce positive results.

We will continue to use our basic goals of healthy, safe, educated and productive children and families to measure results and plan for new initiatives. We are looking forward to new relationships and partnerships in the future.

We want to assure taxpayers that there is still much to be done to fulfill the mission of the Community Caring Council in addressing the needs of children, families and neighborhoods.

TOM N. DAVISSON

Executive Director

Community Caring Council

Cape Girardeau