The Assessment process was completed through a series of forums known as the Focus on Our Future Forums and the collection and analysis of incident rate and epidemiology data available through various state sources.

The number one issue identified in the first two forums was the need for “better parenting” defined as education, information, skill building techniques, and support. It was further believed that activities designed to produce “better parenting” should begin before the child/family was in crises for reasons related to lack of parenting skills – generally referred to as upstream prevention.

The Steering Committee decided to move forward to develop a process to integrate and coordinate existing services, where present, and develop new services, where needed, to address the issue of “better parenting.”

Toward that end, the committee applied for and received grant funding to develop the Welcome Every Child Program. This was the first success. Since then the Steering Committee has evolved into the FOOFCB and has launched a number of programs and services.

Services developed by the FOOFCB include:

• Families First Network Programs (which include Welcome Every Child, Early Head Start, and the Nurse Home Visitor Program), upstream prevention programs for pregnant women, infants and toddlers;

• Help Eradicate the Lice Program (H.E.L.P.), a service that helps families with chronic lice problems.

• Parenting 101, a comprehensive parent education program serving families county wide.

• Fatherhood Initiative, a collection of small programs designed to promote the importance of the father role in a child’s life.

• Healthy Youth Programs, a collection of service projects completed by areayouth that are ultimately designed to promote asset development in the youth participants.

• Sex, Drugs, Rents, and Raves, a community education program designed to teach parents about the warning signs and local dangers of “sex, drugs, rents, and raves.”

• 21st Century Learning Program, an after school program for children demonstrating unsatisfactory performance in one or more core subject.

• Tobacco Control Program, a collection of tobacco cessation programs that are delivered county wide.

• Together We Can, a collection of drug prevention programs delivered county wide.

• Family Group Conferencing, a child abuse prevention program based on a model that originated in New Zealand.

Each of the above programs are guided by a task force committee. The FOOFCB has additional task force committees working to addressing identified issues. These include the diabetes task force, the dental task force, the juvenile delinquency task force, the Faith based task force, and a task force focused on the issues of individuals with special health care needs.

Each year the FOOFCB hosts an annual “Focus On Our Future” Forum. Ten forums have been conducted to date. The 11th Annual Forum will be April 23, 2004 at Cross Creek Resort.