Coordinating Council Coordinating in Darlington County

"Stronger together" is the them of the Darlington County Services Forum 2010 being held at the Lakeview Baptist Church in Hartsville on October 14.

The event, which was kicked off by Senator Gerald Malloy and Representative Jay Lucas, had nearly 40 agencies meeting together and giving very short blurbs about their mission and service opportunities. The Forum is a chance for the various groups, whose primary mission is serving people, to learn how all might work together even better to improve services, get a bigger return on funds invested and make even more of a difference in building community. The Darlington County Coordinating Council meetings on a monthly basis to ensure more frequent contact but they hold an annual forum to help each other get a strong feel for the bigger picture.

One of the key events at this forum will be a presentation about the state budget and state funding estimates for the next fiscal year. That is probably not going to be an optimistic picture as predictions are that the state budget may be even tighter next year than it is right now. That is one more reason the coordinating council is playing such an important role. While some people aren't keen on government, I wondered as I sat listening to presentations, what the people served by these agencies would do if these agencies did not exist. For me, that was a scary thought!

Terrance Herrington Track Dedicated

And, the dedication ceremony was a tribute to Terrance Herrington, one of the most skilled and successful athletes to come from Hartsville. And, the dedication was a tribute to Hartsville. I find it a bit difficult to put into words but the feelings of pride in their home town from those who spoke this morning were a testament or testimony to how people make things happen for people.

The roster of speakers says something about the event. Mayor Mel Pennington kicked off the event, which was a tribute to the City for honoring one of the most successful athletes to come from Hartsville. (Look at the photo of the plaque for some of the reasons why.) Anthony James -- in many memories one of the most successful running backs and track stars of Hartsville fame; Danny Nicholson, another fast moving trackster, now VP of Development at Carson Newman College; Dr. Jimmy Bell, one of the most successful quarterbacks to guide Hartsville, Jay Lucas, another successful Hartsville athlete and hard working S.C. Representative and Gerald Malloy, Senator from Hartsville, who had the initial idea of naming the track at Byerly Park for the runner who was once the fastest in the state, fastest in the country and competing for fastest in the world. Also speaking, though he was out of the country, was Paul Rogers, who coached and trained Terrance in his formative years, and who was a Hartsville and Duke University track star.

There was a great story in the MESSENGER that announced this event and I hope many read it. And, there were inspirational elements in each of the short talks this morning but the message of accepting your blessing and making the most of the gift came through loud and clear -- for all of us in the audience. Dream, hope,and then work to make the hope real and the dreams come alive was one of my takeaways from this impressive event. (Thanks to all who made the morning's tribute such a success.)

Coordinating Council is important for collaboration, communication, cooperation

The Darlington County Coordinating Council is a loose organization of representatives from many of the social service type of agencies that serve the people of Darlington County. The Council meets monthly in Hartsville or Darlington. And, very importantly, the group has a web presence at darcocc.org.

Last week, July 9, the group had its meeting in Hartsville with about 17 people in attendance -- a relatively light crowd but some pretty heavy discussion. One of the key issues that arose was what appears to be an increasing incidence of teenage pregnancy in the Pee Dee. Kathy J. W. Smith of DHEC was doing the monthly organization presentation and she distributed some 2006 statistics on Teen Pregnancy. That handout started some intense discussion around the table and was one of the issues used as the reason for a need of more collaboration among agencies and service providers. The statistics on the page were provisional data for 2006 but they said that Darlington County has a 41.4 teen pregnancy rate, that is calculated per 1000 female population for the specific age group. For comparison, the overall South Carolina rate is 29.6.

SERVICES SUMMIT is September 10, 2009
One of the major announcements at this meeting was that the Services Summit for the county will be at Lakeview Baptist Church Fellowship Hall on September 10. This is an opportunity for service providers to get to know even more about each other's services and provide opportunities for people to meet one another to make coordination of service activities more realistic.

(Interest of full disclosure -- The Byerly Foundation has provided a multi-year grant for the Darlington County Coordinating Council to lay a solid foundation for improved communication among the various service providers. I am the executive director of The Foundation.)

REPRESENTATIVE JAY LUCAS TO COORDINATE
Representative Jay Lucas is going to be the Legislative Delegation's connection to the Coordinating Council. Many of the issues that arise from social service agencies are issues that are governed by state law and all of the issues affect people. In communities where a state legislative delegation takes an active interest in what is happening with social service providers it seems the social services are both more effective and more efficient. In fact, this group had a great deal of impetus a few years ago from State Senator Gerald Malloy, who gave one of the key notes at the first Summit.

NEXT MEETING
The next meeting of the Darlington County Coordinating Council is August 13, 2009 at the McLeod Medical Center - Resource Center in Darlington. Anyone wanting more information on this group can go to the web site, call Kathy Baxley, executive director of the Darlington County Free Medical Clinic, Dr. Nick Nicholson at the Darlington County Community Action Agency or Todd Shifflett at Care South.