Safety Work Group
04/06/2010 - 12/07/2010 The Safety Work Group develops coalitions and collaborations to address larger community issues affecting the safety of children. ... Early Care and Education Work Group
08/03/2010 - 12/07/2010 ECE works to build collaborations among those who serve pre-school children. One meeting each quarter includes the Advisory Council of Jefferson Co... Education Work Group
04/14/2010 - 12/08/2010 The Education Work Group meets each 2nd Wednesday on the second floor of The Little Professor Bookstore at 9:00 a.m. The next meeting is April 14. T...
Good Food is Fun Food!
Swiss Chard Tzatziki (Yogurt Dip) Recipe
Ingredients
1 cup finely chopped Swiss chard leaves (remove ribs*)
1 garlic clove
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup plain yogurt
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
A dash of cayenne
3 (9-inch diameter) pita breads, cut like a pie into triangles
Olive oil for drizzling on to the pita bread
1 Bring a 1 or 2 quart saucepan, half filled with water, to a boil. Add the chopped chard leaves. Cook until tender, about 3-5 minutes. While the chard is cooking, prepare a bowl with ice water for an ice bath. When the chard is cooked, strain through a fine mesh strainer and put into the ice bath to stop the cooking. Drain and set aside.
2 Using mortar and pestle, grind the garlic and salt into a paste. In a medium-sized bowl, stir in the yogurt, chard, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, and cayenne pepper. Set aside.
3 Cut the pita bread into triangles and layout in one layer in a broiling pan (use a sturdy broiling pan, not a cookie sheet or your cookie sheet will warp). Drizzle olive oil on one side of the pita wedges. Use a pastry brush to spread the olive oil more evenly. Place in a broiler. Broil for 5 minutes or until the pita bread starts to toast. Remove and let cool for a minute.
Serve the tzatziki with the pita wedges.
Serves 4.
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Interested in collaborating with other individuals and/or child-serving agencies to help build partnerships to benefit children? Choose a work group (or two) that best suits you and click on the work group's contact link to let us know. Work group areas of interest are based on state priorities for children identified through VOICES for Alabama Children.
Economic Security
Addressing High School Drop Out Prevention and Recovery Issues.
An organizing meeting for the Children’s Economic Security Work Group will be held June 17 at 8:30 a.m.
Linking people and organizations dedicated to children's well-being since February, 2001, the Jefferson County Children's Policy Council (CPC) continues to build powerful networks to benefit children, young people and their families throughout the county. In 2007, following the lead of the Alabama Department of Children’s Affairs, the
CPC considered the Ten Results for Alabama’s Children. Two of those results have become particular focus
areas for the members of CPC. Those results are (1) that children are successful in school and (2) that children transition successfully into adulthood.
Many of our members have been expressing their growing concerns about the numbers of young people across
the county who were dropping out of school or who are at risk for dropping out. We see this problem as having a serious negative impact the quality of life for these students and for all the citizens of Jefferson County.
The CPC’s new Children’s Economic Security Work Group will develop recommendations along two fronts
related to high school dropping out. The first front, working mainly with the county’s 12 school systems,
addresses promotion of high school graduation and prevention of dropping out. The second front, working
with CPC members and their allies and colleagues, addresses what community-based agencies/organizations/advocacy groups can do to help those who have already dropped out get back on track to economic security for themselves and their families.
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Early Care and Education
The Cooperative's Early Care and Education (ECE) work group is chaired by Beth Johns, Director of United Way's Success By Six. Meetings are scheduled for the first Wednesday of every month from 8:30 A.M. until 10:00 A.M.
During the summer of 2007, the ECE launched a "Contributing to Readiness" pilot project to provide free vision, dental and developmental screenings, referrals and follow up care as needed for children ranging from newborn to age 5. This program was so successful that Success By Six adopted it for continuation through their programs.
For more information and/or to join this work group, come to a meeting or e-mail Jennifer or Beth Johns.
Health
Chaired by Tom Struzick, the Health Work Group is another example of volunteers collaborating to fulfill the Cooperative’s mission—Building Partnerships to Benefit Children.
Recognizing that the most effective means of positively influencing children’s health is to work closely with schools, this work group envisioned a “School Health Network” (SHN). The SHN would include representatives from the county’s public school systems and, eventually representatives from private schools as well. Through the SHN, issues and concerns common among most or all of the Network’s members would be addressed.
A survey developed and administered by the work group found that even schools with diverse socioeconomic populations share many health concerns, chief among them: asthma, diabetes, mental health, school emergencies, obesity and nutrition.
In 2006 the Health Work Group began organizing and offering a series of SHN presentations and workshops to address those common concerns. Physicians, educators and other professionals from UAB and Children’s Hospital were recruited to discuss specifics such as administration of Glucagon, factors that can trigger asthma attacks, and carbohydrate counting.
The Health Work Group targeted school emergencies as the issue to address through the first conference for school nurses and other people who must respond during school crises. Titled “Facing Emergency Situations at School: Before, During and After" the center piece of the conference was a panel discussion among prominent children's specialists: Carden Johnston, MD Emeritus Professor Pediatrics, UAB School of Medicine, Department of Pediatric Emergency Medicine; Tom Vaughan, Jr., M.D. – Vice President for Mental Health, Children’s Health System; Joe Acker – Executive Director, Birmingham Regional Emergency Medical Services System (UAB Health Systems); and Stephen Baldwin, M.D. – Medical Director for Disaster Responses, Children’s Health System
For 2008 and 2009 the Health Work Group will continue to support the SHN.
Research indicates that the most reliable predictor of life long health is high school gradution. Statistically, a person who does not graduate from high school has a life expectancy 6 years shorter than someone who does graduate. Because high school graduation is so key to health, the Health Work Group is adding their efforts to those of other groups throughout the county and state to learn as much as possible aabout effective ways to increase high school graduation. Members of the work group decided in April to canvas schools in the county to inquire about, and report on, interventions in place and planned to decrease the alarming rate of dropout in our high schools.
To join the Health Work Group contact Jennifer or Tom.
Safety
Anita-Scott Smith, of Jefferson County's Department of Human Resources, is the new chair of the Cooperative's Safety Work Group. She leads a group having strong interest in children's safety issues ranging from child abuse and neglect to emergency preparedness and disaster planning. Check the calendar for the next Safety Work Group meetings.
Previous activities include successful development of community coordination addressing domestic violence as a threat to children's safety. Members of the CCR (Coordinated Community Response) include volunteers and representatives from agencies and organizations such as the Alabama Coalition Against Violence, Birmingham Police Department, Hoover City Schools, Jefferson County Department of Human Resources, Jefferson County Family Court, Jefferson County Schools, Legal Aid Society, Legal Services Alabama, The Women's Fund, Jefferson County Sheriff's Office and YWCA of Central Alabama.
During the past year, the Safety Work Group built a strong coalition of agencies and organizations offering mentoring services to children and families. Through that coalition the Safety Work Group sponsored a Mentor Safari, held at the Birmingham Zoo, where partners could showcase their services. Held on America's National Day of Service, the event was designed to help each agency recruit more mentors. The Safari offered a brief overview of mentoring and included opportunities to start the background investigation requirement for mentoring children. Building on the success of that event, members of the Safety Work Group developed a full day seminar, The Mentor Institute, that offered one-stop-shopping for individuals thinking of becoming mentors, organizations starting mentor programs and informative sessions about the psychological aspects of mentoring, strategies for recruitment and a lunch during which mentors and mentees told their stories of life changing mentor relationships.
Through the successes of these mentoring activities the Children's Policy Council now supports the Central Alabama Mentor Coalition. This group brings together all those whose special interest is mentoring to continue the collaborationa and increased efficinciess developed through the past year.
To become involved with the Safety Work Group, contact Jennifer or Anita.
Education
Jennifer Horton, is the new chair of the Education Work Group. After having been "at recess" for a time, this work group will meet on Thursday, April 16 at 3:30 p.m. in the Training Room at Family Court to begin discussion about information and activities that could be shared to improve aspects of education in the county. Previous Education Work Gruops have targeted after-school programming and piloted one such program by partnering with North Avondale Public Library. Previous members of this work group, as well as other CPC participants and interested members of the community, are invited to help shape the work of this group.
Coming Soon!
Are you dedicated to improving children's economic security? Work groups dedicated to economic security are being re-organized now. Contact Jennifer for more information.
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