About Us
In 1991, Dawson County was one of 15 Georgia counties that volunteered to participate in a two year program created by Gov. Zell Miller responding to the release of the Annie E. Casey Foundation inaugural KIDS COUNT report in 1990 to track the status of children in the United States. This report placed Georgia 48th out of 50 states in regards to it’s children’s well-being. The pilot was called Georgia Family Connection.
Today, Dawson County Family Connection is one of 159 county collaborations under Georgia Family Connection, all committed to the mission of improving conditions for at-risk children, families, and communities.
Our Mission:
Providing leadership through collaboration with all segments of the community for the well-being of families and children.
Our Vision:
All children in Dawson County will have the opportunity to become successful, contributing, productive, and self-sustaining adults.
Our FY25 Goals:
- Dawson County Family Connection (DCFC) has consolidated its FY24 strategies of Family Stability and Mental Wellness into one singular strategy for FY25: Mental Wellness. DCFC will engage partners & provide/promote resources & activities that support the five-stage model known as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (MHON) to improve the mental wellness of Dawson County families. MHON is arranged in a hierarchy with physiological (survival) needs at the bottom & more self-actualization needs at the top. It is argued that each tier must be satisfied before an individual (or family) can satisfy higher needs. Therefore; in FY25, DCFC will focus on activities/programs/services that support the three lower tiers of MHON; to improve the mental wellness of Dawson County families & children & build a foundation for their realization of the higher two tiers of MHON.
- Self-actualization needs: the realization of a person’s potential, self-fulfillment, & peak experiences
- Esteem needs: the realization of self-worth, accomplishment, & respect
- Love and belonging needs: human emotional need for interpersonal relationships, affiliations, connectedness, & being part of a group
- Safety needs: emotional & financial security
- Physiological needs: food, shelter, clothing, warmth, etc.
Two key additions have been made to the DCFC FY25 plan to better serve the mental wellness needs of the community:
- Historically, DCFC has received tremendous support from its local school system, government, & resource agencies in its efforts to serve the community. In FY25, DCFC is excited to fill a missing seat at the table by initiating a Church Collaborative; created to provide the faith-based community an opportunity to work together to efficiently reach shared goals.
- Many local mental wellness facilitators are currently at capacity & therefore extending a critical gap of time, the gap of time between realizing professional help is needed & receiving professional help, for families in Dawson County. The FY25 annual plan addresses this issue by coordinating group counseling sessions for families & children as an expedient, no-cost, mental wellness opportunity for children & families in need of such services.
About Georgia Family Connection
Georgia Family Connection is the only statewide network of its kind in the country with partners in all 159 counties working toward measurably better outcomes for our children, families, and communities. This gives us a unique vantage point—not only to see the big picture—but also to operate effectively at a local level.
We disentangle the mess of barriers, service gaps, and inefficiencies obscuring progress for our most vulnerable families. We do that by connecting our partners to resources, helping coordinate and manage efforts, and empowering our communities to craft local solutions based on local decisions.
Georgia Family Connection Partnership (GaFCP) represents and promotes Georgia Family Connection’s work, provides expertise in planning and governance, administers the state-appropriated funds for the local Collaboratives, sets standards of excellence, and helps Collaboratives evaluate their progress.
The state’s designated KIDS COUNT grantee, GaFCP also provides state agencies and policymakers with current, reliable data they need to inform decisions about improving conditions for the communities they serve.
Our Work
At Georgia Family Connection, we work to ensure that all children are healthy, primed for school, and succeed when they get there; families are stable, self-sufficient, and productive; and communities are vibrant, robust, and thriving.
None of these result areas stand in isolation. They overlap. By collaborating across sectors to address them, we nurture children and families who thrive in vibrant communities—everywhere. Because we work toward measurably better outcomes for everyone.
