COMMUNITY CARING COUNCIL HAS A DISTINGUISHED RECORD

The Community Caring Council has been hard at work for more than 12 years and has been a catalyst for the cooperative efforts to improve the lives of families and children. The council's primary role has been to empower families and individuals to become more self-reliant, resourceful and responsible. The secondary objective has always been to avoid duplication of efforts and to fill in the gaps in services.

The council has, for many years, convened and facilitated public meetings in order to bring people together to address community issues. The council has been recognized as an incubator for many programs and services already in place in the community.

The Big Brother-Big Sister program, which matches at-risk youths with mentors, started under the umbrella of the Community Caring Council. And the council served as the tax-exempt umbrella for First Call for Help until it kicked off its operation earlier this year. Other programs that had their beginnings in a Community Caring Council committee include Educare, Court Appointed Special Advocates, Safe Kids Coalition, Cape Alternative School, Family Resource Center and the Seniors and Lawmen Together Council.

It would be surprising for many to learn that many of the ideas that seem new and fresh today are issues that have been addressed in depth in the past by the Community Caring Council. A great example of this is the transportation issue.

For more than three years, a Community Caring Council transportation committee met monthly with representatives from all organizations in the city and county that were involved with transportation or with the transportation of clients. Then, as now, the need was identified for public transportation.

A feasibility study was conducted by the committee, and presentations were made by the Community Caring Council to both the Cape Girardeau City Council and the County Commission. At that time, the County Commission appointed its own committee, and the Community Caring Council, feeling that it had done the research and needs assessment, disbanded the committee and put the matter into the hands of those who, it felt, could impact the outcomes so badly needed.

The feasibility study that was contracted for by the County Commission reached the same conclusions as the study done by the Community Caring Council, but the matter is still unresolved.

Current Community Caring Council committees focus on children and youth issues, aging issues and welfare reform as addressed by the work opportunities coordinating committee and the Jump Start on Jobs program developed by the council's employment committee.

The Inter-Agency Staffing Team is one of the oldest council groups. It meets twice monthly to staff cases of children and youth at risk of out-of-home placement or at risk of entering the juvenile-justice system. Representatives of more than 13 youth-serving organizations, including Cape Girardeau and Jackson schools, participate in this effort. The team has been responsible for the development of one of the community's most successful mentoring programs.

The Community Caring Council has taken a leadership role as one of the first community partnerships in the state to partner with eight state agencies (the departments of Social Services, Health, Mental Health, Elementary and Secondary Education, Corrections, Labor and Industrial Relations and Public Safety) to develop the Caring Communities Initiative, a systems-reform effort to change for the better the way services are provided to children and families.

Caring Communities in Cape Girardeau partners with the public schools to integrate services by locating them where children go to school and families live. State agencies have pooled funding for services and have given the local partnerships the decision-making authority to decide what is best for their own community. This is something that had not been done before. Caring Communities sites include Blanchard, Franklin, Jefferson and Clippard elementary schools, with services also being provided at Schultz School, the junior high school and the old May Greene Elementary School neighborhood.

Evaluations prove that Caring Communities is making a positive impact in helping families and children be more successful. The results are that families and children are better served, parents have a say in what they need and tax dollars are used more wisely and efficiently.

During the past few years, the Community Caring Council in its partnership with state agencies has been able to bring Cape Girardeau a number of grant programs totaling several hundred thousand dollars. These include the Missouri Mentoring Partnership, Project Hope (faith-based mentoring program), Parent and Child Together (juvenile-delinquency prevention program), Early Child-care and Education Initiative, Health Children Nutrition Education Program and Proud Parents (program for non-custodial fathers). The council has proven it is a good administrator, being responsible and accountable for the public trust.

As you can see, there is much going on and enough work for everyone in the city and county to do. It takes hundreds of exemplary people to volunteer to make this happen. But it also takes the commitment for all of us to work together and find ways to do this in a cooperative and collaborative manner. I am so proud of Cape Girardeau and all its citizens and fine dedicated leaders. I know we will continue to prove that Cape Girardeau cares and is a city with a heart.

Mary C. Kasten is the state representative for the 158th District, who has been instrumental in the formation and ongoing operations of the Community Caring Council.