Community Roundtable Participants Provide Valuable Insight

On February 24th, over 80 community people from a variety of agencies and organizations in Marion County that serve children and families came together to

help us develop a meaningful, manageable and measurable plan to improve early intervention and prevention services in Marion County.  The day was filled with interactive sessions around four broad strategies:

1. Promoting the ‘self-sufficiency’ of families with children at risk of abuse or neglect, dependency or delinquency.
2. Promote the prevention or reduction in the number of cases of child abuse, delinquency, or neglect that may require juvenile court intervention.
3. Promote the coordination of available resources to at-risk children (of abuse, neglect, dependency, delinquency) and families with at risk children to promote efficiency and avoid duplication of programs and services.
4. Reducing or eliminating to the extent possible the need to remove children from their parents, guardians or custodians for foster home care or institutional placement.

Participants were assigned to one of four work stations - each assigned one of the broad strategies. Through a series of exercises, each group was charged to develop specific ideas on how to address each of the strategies.

Read the many ideas that were generated through the large and small group and partner discussions throughout the day.