A request for the city and county to proclaim 2010 as "Year of the Young Child" in Durham prompted county and city officials to raise frets about social-welfare programs that operate without coordination and duplicate services.
"We have so many efforts going on here in Durham that the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing -- and that's a fact," City Councilman Howard Clement said.
"We need to get together."
The "Year of the Young Child" request came from the nonprofit Durham's Partnership for Children, along with a request for an official stamp of approval for an "Early Childhood Initiative."
Partnership Director Marsha Basloe made the appeal to the Joint City-County Committee of City Council members and county commissioners.
Committee members encouraged Partnership for Children to connect with Durham Public Schools, and mentioned other current projects such as the East Durham Children's Initiative, the County Health Department's nutrition program for children and a program for "disconnected youth."
"All over the place, we're trying to do good," said Commissioner Becky Heron. "Let's try to work together so we're not duplicating services out there."
Angelica Oberleithner, Partnership's assistant director, said afterward the group has already collaborated with DPS "on a variety of levels" and with other Durham agencies.
community planning process to discuss the needs of infants and toddlers, the
youngest residents of our community, and the ones with the highest poverty rate," Oberleithner wrote in an email to Bull's Eye.
The resulting plan led to Partnership's winning a $3.3 million federal grant it is using to provide daycare and at-home services for 120 young children of impoverished parents.
Proclaiming a "Year of the Young Child" would give Partnership extra leverage in seeking "more resources" for poor infants and toddlers, Basloe told the Joint City-County Committee.
