The Governor’s FY2012 budget recommends consolidation and transfer of the Georgia Family Connection Partnership (FCP) appropriation from the Department of Human Services (DHS) to the Governor’s Office for Children and Families (GOCF).
History:
Georgia Family Connection was created 20 years ago to streamline services and systems that impact and serve children and families. FCP’s core principles are local decision-making based on reliable data, accountability, and leveraging resources.
Logic?:
The logic behind this move is baffling. Even today, at the Department of Human Services budget hearing, when Rep. Carolyn Hugley (District 133 – Columbus) asked DHS Commissioner Clyde Reese if he knew the reason for this move, he was unable to provide an answer.
FCP has a reputation for good, reliable work in 159 counties of the state and helps multitudes of children and families. It secures decent funding from the private sector (much of which would be lost if absorbed into GOCF) and has worked well with DHS. All that said, we are left with the inevitable question: What problem would this move solve? I don’t have an answer. Do you?
6 comments
01/21/2011 at 4:14 pm
Paula Semple
It appears to me after 10 years with Georgia politics that the state of Georgia has a difficult time knowing what to do when they finally get something right. In the last 10 years, we have revamped more departments more times that I can count, only to find that the new changes were never allowed to stay long enough for anyone to know whether or not they actually worked. Georgia Family Connection Partnership is the one program Georgia actually got right. Not only is GA the only state in the nation with a comprehensive statewide collaborative network that leverages local, state and federal dollars to work within local communities, it also gives a voice to every county in the state regarding how they wish to improve their own communities. Moving GaFCP under GOCF is simply adding a layer of politics to an agency so that GA State can once again kill the effectiveness of a fantastic organization. Do we really need another top-heavy, diluted program in a state that is already struggling to move up from the bottom? GA Family Connection Partnership has consistently given this state something to cheer about for 20 years, and has 20 years of evaluation data to back up their work. What other organization can say that?
My thoughts? Leave GaFCP alone to do the work they are best at doing, the work no one else has the courage or knowledge to do.
01/22/2011 at 11:19 am
James Raslton
Control If you put it all under the gov’s office it will be easier to control it.
01/23/2011 at 7:51 pm
A. Concerned Georgian
Unfortunately, James Raslton, you may be right. Do your homework, however, and you’ll find that one of the founding principles of Family Connection is the concept of local control and governance.
This is the idea that the people at the county level–NOT the state–know what’s best for the people in their communities…that they know best how to solve their own problems.
There are a lot of well-meaning people working at the state level who don’t know much about what it takes to make things work in Tifton county or in Elbert county or in Walker county or in Webster county.
From where I sit, you could almost say FC was created as a solution to the problem of state government telling communities what to do.
As best I can tell, GOCF is a relatively new grant making agency that contracts with other organizations and individuals to build capacity of some of the groups they give money to.
Even if the current Governor wanted to go against the 20 year vision and mission of the Governor and legislature created Family Connection and exert more control over the 159 Family Connection collaboratives, the argument that such a young agency with such a wide and ever-growing empire as GOCF is up for the task is questionable.
01/26/2011 at 3:31 pm
Family Feud: The Future of The Family Connection Partnership and $8 Million | Juvenile Justice Information Exchange
[…] committee that her organization would like to see the Partnership preserved in its current form. A blog on the Voices website says, “The logic behind this move is baffling… [Family Connection Partnership] has a […]
01/27/2011 at 3:31 pm
Leonard Witt
The Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (JJIE.org) has an in-depth story on the Governor’s plan. See story:
Family Feud: Family Connection Partnership and its $8M Budget in Limbo
http://jjie.org/legislation/family-feud-future-of-family-connection-partnership-its-million-budget
02/08/2011 at 11:17 am
harold
This transfer is long overdue. FCP is a bloated agency that values endless abstract discussions over meaninglful practical results. A better solution might be to cut the state FC budget entirely and give the money to county FC offices.