RINCON — Effingham County Family Connection’s numerous partners are bound by a spirit of togetherness.
That was clearly evident during Thursday’s collaborative meeting at Effingham College & Career Academy. It was the focus of a speech by Gregory Rosso, a community outreach associate for WellCare of Georgia.
During a PowerPoint presentation, Rosso said while evoking the memory of Hellen Keller said, “Alone we can do so little. Together we can do so much.”
Effingham County Family Connection unites community partners to develop, implement and evaluate plans that address the challenges children and families face. These include child abuse, poverty, mental health and more.
Rosso read several other quotes about collaboration from famous people before turning his attention to similar words uttered by Family Connection partners.
Reading from a screen, he said, “Collaboration is having the right people at the table working together to accomplish a shared goal. A collaborative is everything. If you ever met the woman who said that, you know she wears her passion on her sleeve.
“It’s Wendy Sims of Bryan County (Family Connection).”
Rosso said Family Connection is about building relationships that solve problems.
“That’s the key to collaboration,” he said.
To prove his point, Rosso shared the story of collaborative members who joined forces to help an elderly couple get a costly track system installed in their house that is used to get their 19-year-old disabled granddaughter in and out of the tub and in and out of bed. The was added and other modifications were made to their bathroom at no cost to the couple.
“I just connected two (partners) and then they took off,” Rosso said. “They are the magic. They made it happen.”
Rosso then backtracked a bit, saying, “It’s not about magic. It’s all about collaboration. It’s all about needing each other.”
During each collaborative meeting, a few collaborative partners are afforded the opportunity to tout their services in detail. Teach Right!, a store that sells educational resources, Coastal Harbor Health System and Gilead Counseling were in the spotlight Thursday.
Teach Right! owner Marian Hodge used part of her time to advocate for the Exchange Club’s Time Out Teddy program. It uses toy bears to promote good parenting skills and positive forms of discipline.
Hodge sells the bears at her store. They are often used by law enforcement officers to calm child abuse victims.
The next collaborative meeting is May 8 at 9:30 a.m. at the Effingham County Administrative Complex, 601 N. Laurel St., Springfield. Contact Effingham County Family Connection Executive Director Elaine Spencer at ecfamilyconnection@gmail.com.
