News Release

Collaborations for Resiliency for Children, Inc. Receives Kids Net Interagency Community Partner Award

On May 26, Kids Net Georgia presented its annual Kids Net Interagency Community Partner Award to Collaborations for Resiliency in Children, Inc. (Collaborations), a private non-profit mental health services organization in Jasper. The Award for “demonstrating outstanding support of system of care and service to children/families” was presented to Jacque Jacobs, Collaborations Director, at the Kids Net Systems of Care Academy III Training Conference.

KidsNet is a special State initiative that has been working to redefine and enhance community-based principles and practices for supporting families and children to address behavioral and academic challenges.

The mission of KidsNet Georgia is to provide technical and financial support to communities to establish a system of care where families play the major role in defining their challenges and goals, where community partners provide comprehensive, integrated support to families to address challenges and achieve goals, and where measurable achievement of family goals is a primary focus.

Collaborations received the Award in recognition of its success in engaging families in taking the lead in identifying and addressing their challenges, collaborating with multiple resources to support families to achieve their goals, and gaining the confidence and trust of the families they serve.

For several years, Collaborations has been a leader in promoting the System of Care in Pickens County, working closely with the Juvenile Court, Department of Family and Children Services, the Schools, and many other partners to provide outcome based, family driven, integrated opportunities and support for families and children in Pickens County.

The newly developed Mauldin Pattern Assessment, developed by Collaborations associate Dr. John Maudlin, provides a comprehensive, streamlined process for assessing challenges and strengths of children and families, and assessing progress toward goal achievement.

Jacobs has been serving on the Northwest Georgia Kids Net Advisory Council, and has influenced the formation of operational system of care principles that have been adopted by the state KidsNet/System of Care network.

Collaborations has been working with Pickens County Schools to create a proactive multidisciplinary intervention for children designated in need of behavioral or learning support. This initiative, which is identified as Schools and Community Intervening Early (SCIE Team), will be implemented in the near future.

Collaborations is also a partner in a newly implemented Pickens System of Care Initiative to integrate community supports and opportunities for families of children, age prenatal up to three years of age, to provide nurturing contexts for the children and to enhance parent education and employability. Partners include Pickens Family Partners, Pickens Pregnancy and Family Care Center, Chattahoochee Tech, Jasper United Methodist Church, and many others.

The award presented to Jacque on behalf of Collaborations is an engraved drum created through Ten Thousand Villages which is a non-profit that invests in dignity, sustainability, education and hope for villages and neighborhoods in more than 36 countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. The award to Collaborations was most fitting.