About Us

Harris County Family Connection (HCFC) is a partnership of 33 organizations working with families to research the needs of children and families in our community, and to work together to address those needs. We serve as the local decision-making body, bringing community partners together to develop, implement, and evaluate plans that address the serious challenges facing Harris County’s children and families.

Our Over-Arching Goal: Improved Conditions for Children and Families in Harris County

We pursue this goal by addressing the  the needs of the children and families in the community. Using a family-centered approach, schools, health and human service agencies, business, the faith community, law enforcement, nonprofit organizations, civic clubs, and others work together with families, focusing on academics, physical and mental health, nurturing parenting, economic success, and community service. We tap existing resources, streamline systems to be more efficient and effective, and initiate new projects like those listed below.

Our Collaborative serves as the local decision-making body, bringing community partners together to develop, implement, and evaluate plans that address the serious challenges facing Harris County’s children and families.

Our Collaborative is made up of representatives from the following agencies: the Harris County Board of Education, DHR/DFCS, HC Cooperative Extension Services, Department of Labor(DOL), Enrichment Services Program, CAFI Head Start, Harris County Chamber of Commerce, DJJ, Harris County Public Library, Harris County Health Department, New Horizons(Mental Health Services)and County Government as well as local businesses and faith based organizations. We work closely with partners to increase awareness of issues facing Harris County’s children and families.

Our Partners

Our partners include the Department of Family & Children Services, Harris County Health, Department of Juvenile Justice, Harris Chamber of Commerce, individual businesses, Police Department, Sheriff, Department of Leisure Services, Department of Labor, Boys & Girls Scouts, Area Agency on Aging, Court Appointed Special Advocates, Harris County Board of Education, DHS/DFCS, Private Citizens, The Southern Company, McKees Flowers & Gifts, Xerox, Friendship Baptist Church, Bethsda Baptist Church, 4-H, Harris County EOC, Adult Education/ GED, Enrichment Services Program, Workforce Investment Act., Harris County Library, FOCUS, CAFI Head Start, and many others.

Our most important partners are the families whose children we are serving.

Some of the projects that have been initiated through this process:

  • Anti-truancy initiative
  • Nutrition and health insurance outreach
  • HC ” Back To School Rush”
  • HC Community Resource Guide
  • HC Community Wide Referral System
  • Various welfare-to-work strategies/WIA/Job Fairs
  • 8th Grade Math CRCT and Absenteeism Initiative
  • Give Smoking the Boot
  • Multiple Youth Leadership Projects
  • Handy Helpers Elementary Schools
  • Basic First Aid Elementary Schools
  • Peer to Peer and other Mentoring Programs
  • HC Scholarships Program
  • Christmas In Harris

Working in partnership with families, we have tackled intractable problems like truancy, child abuse and neglect, school dropout, and physical and mental health disparities, with implementation by the partners (School District, Health Department, DFCS, Faith Based Organizations, Business and private citizens, et al.).

  • Working together, our partners have achieved remarkable results. For example:
  • Our 8th grade Math CRCT scores saw a 2.5%  increase in the first year of plan implementation and students are present both in school and in our Math Boot Camp initiatives during the after school hours.
  • We pulled together our partners to strategize about truancy; within the first year we have already seen a decrease in the number of days absent at the middle school due to the diligence of our partners.
  • Our Community Wide Resource and Referral System will be fully operational this year allowing our service providers, school system personnel to refer families in need to the appropriate providers for services thus allowing the child to focus more in the classroom and ensuring a stable family.
  • With the leadership of Public Health in collaboration with other partners, our annual “Back To School Rush enables all of Harris County’s children an equal and favorable start to the new school year. Last years event saw over 486 students who received free school screenings and immunizations in addition to a free school starter kit. All of our homeless students and foster children receive free back packs in addition to school supplies.
  • Christmas In Harris is a great way to spend the holidays in service to others. We provided clothing, food, toys and gifts to over 507 HC residents including all of our homeless students, foster kids, seniors. Participation abounds throughout the community.

Our History

The Georgia County Collaborative Authority for Families and Children was created under the authority of Act 677, adopted March 27, 1998 and amended May 1, 2002 by the General Assembly of the State of Georgia. Designated as the local decision making body for prioritizing the needs of families and children, the Georgia Collaborative brings community partners together to develop, implement, and evaluate plans that address the serious challenges facing Georgia County’s children and families.

The Collaborative has positioned itself as a nonprofit focusing on networking and relationships; connecting both the general public to partners and partners to each other. While there is no one sentence to explain what Georgia Collaborative does, the tag line says it all: “Helping People Help Others.”

The Future

Our success is our partners’ success. We bring all of our partners together, to collaboratively develop and implement the strategies of the ideas created to benefit those of the community.

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.