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Project Description:
In 1990, Governor Gaston Caperton and the West Virginia legislature created the Governor's Cabinet on Children and Families. The Cabinet seeks to transform the fragmented, categorical approaches to meeting the needs of families into an integrated system that responds flexibly to specific community priorities. The Cabinet is using its broad powers to encourage service coordination for children and families, to negotiate interagency agreements, to waive cumbersome regulations that impede high-quality program development, and to institute Family Resource Networks in local communities. Since their establishment in 1991, these networks have been the primary coordinating and planning bodies for community service systems for children and families, providing focal points for the delivery of comprehensive health, education, and social services. Two-thirds of West Virginia's fifty-five counties currently have networks staffed by professionals and volunteers. The Cabinet provides start-up grants and ongoing technical assistance in order to expand the networks throughout the state and works with community, university, and business leaders to build support for the networks' long-term growth and development.
West Virginia's project focuses on building the local capacity of the networks to plan, deliver, and improve services for young children and their families. Up to eight Starting Points early childhood centers will be created to operate within the existing broader-purpose networks. The centers will be located in schools, housing projects, and other places easily accessible to families. They will offer comprehensive services, including health screening and care, parent and preschool education, and family support and home-visiting outreach programs.
West Virginia's Starting Points initiative is managed by the Governor's Cabinet on Children and Families. Other support is provided by the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation and the AT&T Foundation.
Major Program Components:
Contact:
Kimberly Ann Veraas
Coordinator of Early Childhood Initiatives
West Virginia Governor's Cabinet on Children and Families
1900 Kanawha Boulevard East
Charleston, WV 25305
Tel: 304/558-1954, Fax: 304/558-0596
E-mail: cabinet@citynet.net
Web: http://www.citynet.net
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