NEW MADRID - A statewide system to improve the well-being of Missouri's children and families will include statistics from New Madrid County.
The New Madrid County Human Resource Council will produce the first of what will become an annual report card in January.
The report card, mandated by Gov. Bob Holden, is designed to provide a picture of the Caring Communities Initiative's progress toward results, their success in generating additional resources and their ability to identify and overcome barriers to effective services delivery.
Michelle Terrell, executive director for the New Madrid County Family Resource Center, explained the report card will seek to show the results of the Caring Communities Initiative locally as well as statewide.
"We are participating as part of the initiative to show our local taxpayers and contributors that we do produce results for them," said Terrell. "And to show our state legislators we are a good return on their investment of state monies."
The New Madrid County Family Resource Center, located at 420 Virginia St. in New Madrid, houses not only the Caring Communities program but other programs designed to meet the needs of county residents such as the Delta Area Economic Opportunity Corporation to employment specialists and Work Force Development. Programs available include computer training, educational classes and even aerobics.
Or as explained by Terrell: "The center houses many programs to meet the many needs of the county."
In a news release announcing the uniform accounting system for the Caring Communities Initiative, the governor said the "reporting system will encourage community partnerships to be more innovative and effective, while also communicating to citizens the positive return of taxpayer dollars."
These report cards are designed to provide the information that the Partnership needs to develop future community plans, he said. It will supply the data they need to identify their most pressing community problems, set priorities, select evidence-based strategies that will impact their priorities and track long-term outcomes.
Each Caring Community program will use a standardized format to report to the governor, the legislature and the public annually.
Also as part of this effort, the eight participating state agencies in the Caring Community Partnership will produce annual report cards.
Terrell said she and a staff team will compile the information and numbers required for the report over the next several weeks. Her first report will be in the hands of legislators by Jan. 15.
"We want to show our legislators some results," said Terrell, who noted Caring Communities is facing budget cuts for fiscal year 2003. "We are trying to show the legislators and folks in community they are getting their money's worth."
The first report will be followed with two more in February, according to Terrell.
The New Madrid County Resource Center will make the reports available to area residents as well. She stated the reports will be reproduced in the center's newsletter, in the quarterly progress report and posted at the center hopefully later this spring.
"We want everyone to know the amount of people we do affect, who have received training and hopefully show we touch a lot of lives through our work here with all the partners involved," said Terrell. "I think most folks will be pretty amazed by the numbers."
Other area participants in the annual report will include the Mississippi County Interagency Council, Pemiscot County Initiative Network and the Cape Girardeau Caring Community Council.