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THURSDAY. SEPTEMBER 30. 2010 PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS PAGE 11A
Agency for children and parents marks 15th year in Pickens
Margy Lohman, executive director of Pickens Family Partners,
was recognized by Commissioner Robert Jones September 23rd for
15 years assisting families here to prevent child abuse.
By Jeff Warren
Commissioner Robert Jones
took time from his morning
schedule Thursday, September
23, to recognize Pickens lady,
Margy Lohman, for work she
does locally serving children and
families. For a decade and a half,
Lohman has headed an organiza
tion now called Pickens Family
Partners.
"Originally we were Prevent
Child Abuse Pickens," Lohman
explained, "but now we have a
new name, Pickens Family Part
ners. We're actually celebrating
our 15th anniversary."
Under the old name, the orga
nization's yearly high-visibility
event involved a display of pin-
wheels on the courthouse lawn,
representing the number of re
ported child abuse cases in Pick
ens County. Other than that, who
knew what the organization was
about?
"You might say we're the best
kept secret in Pickens County,"
Lohman said, "but we're going to
really start pushing this new
name and new logo."
The organization was foimded
here in 1995 as a private 501c3
non-profit, funded in part by
government grants.
"The agency was formed to
address the high child abuse and
neglect in Pickens County,"
Lohman said. "The rate is pretty
high."
The number of reported child
abuse cases fluctuates year to
year, Lohman said, but is up just
now, because of pressures felt by
families during a bad economy,
she believes. Lohman's organiza
tion battles the problem with
three main programs: Healthy
Families; First Steps; and Parents
as Teachers.
"Healthy Families is a home
visitation program addressing
parenting needs of first-time par
ents," Lohman said. Family sup
port workers (paid staffers) make
weekly home visits.
They provide parenting infor
mation and can refer parents to
community resources—things
like local adult education to gain
a GED, the CARES food pantry
to help with groceries, housing
assistance, or the Babies Can't
Wait program if parents have a
child with developmental diffi
culties.
"Family support workers ad
minister developmental screen
ings of children starting at four
months of age," Lohman said,
"to pick up on any kind of early
developmental type delay."
The sooner such delays are
discovered, the sooner a child
can begin needed therapy,
Lohman said. For an issue like
delayed speech, therapy can
bring a child up to speed before
they head to school, she said.
Another program Lohman
oversees is called First Steps. "It
visits all new parents giving birth
at Piedmont Mountainside [Hos
pital]," she said. In total, the pro
gram has touched close to 2,000
local families, Lohman said.
First Steps helps parents pre
pare for arrival of their newborn.
It gets parents involved in the
day-to-day loving care of their
child. The program helps with
sibling adjustment around a new
arrival and with the "baby blues"
a mom may feel after delivery.
“Parents As Teachers is a new
program we implemented a year
ago,” Lohman said. Because the
Healthy Families program only
admits children up to three
months old. Parents As Teachers
was begun to help families with
older children, she explained.
"The objective came from re
alizing parents are the first and
best teachers a child can have,"
Lohman said. The program
moves beyond issues of abuse or
neglect to center on a child's
school readiness, she said.
"We also do monthly group
activities and workshops," she
said. "That is to form peer rela
tionships with other parents. We
do parent-child activities. We do
workshops on child brain devel
opment. We do cultural events
[social get-togethers] around hol
idays to celebrate diversity and
inclusion."
Meetings take place at the
Pickens Family Partners Center,
housed in the old Tate Clinic.
Once a locally famous birthing
center, the clinic is now a sort of
rearing center.
The Parents As Teachers pro
gram prepares children for Head
Start, using a curriculum called
"Born to Learn", Lohman said.
"It's almost like a home school
for babies."
The most important years for
childhood learning are from birth
to three years, Lohman said.
"They learn more during that
time, the first three years of life,
than in the rest of their life."
A New Jersey child, Lohman
grew up in a small rural commu
nity in the northern part of that
state, a place about the size of
Hinton, she said. She later gained
a degree in early childhood de
velopment from a Methodist col
lege in West Virginia. Lohman
spent most of her career raising
her own three children in Pickens
County before she began to head
the agency that assists new par
ents here.
She listed some successes at
tributable to the work of Pickens
Family Partners. "We currently
have ten mothers in GED [train
ing]," she said. "We have seven
at Chattahoochee Tech. We've
had zero repeat teen pregnancies
and zero reports to DFACS for
child abuse or neglect among
anyone participating in the pro
gram. And we have 72 families
that we serve."
Pickens Family Partners is
also at work to promote a love of
reading in children from an early
age. They give books away. "We
always have a need for the card
board type infant books,"
Lohman said. "Every child gets a
book on every visit, no matter
their age."
The result shows, Lohman
said, when some of these same
children choose books over toys
to entertain themselves when
they visit the Partners Center at
Tate.
“We're really facing a chal
lenge this year,” Lohman said.
The bad economy has state gov
ernment cutting back grants she
relies on to fund her agency.
“One DHR [Georgia Department
4-H’ers compete in dairy goat show
By Clarcy Kirby
Before this year, Pickens County 4-H has only
competed in meat goat shows. On Saturday, Sept.
25, Davon Painter and Alice Kirby traveled to the
Gwinnett County Fair in Lawrenceville to compete
in the American Dairy Goat Association Show.
In the Showmanship Contest, Davon won 1st
and Alice won 4th in their age group. In Showman
ship, the 4-H’er demonstrates the ability to show
their animal to their best. The 4-H’er must be able
to answer any question that the judge may ask
about the dairy goat industry.
In the goat classes, the animals are shown by age
categories. Davon’s Nubian goat Lily won 11th.
Alice exhibited four goats: three Nubians - Darci,
Sugar and Moon and one Recorded Grade - Tweety.
Sugar won 7th and Darci placed 8th, while Tweety
won 1st in her class and went on to win Grand
Champion Recorded Grade.
Peewee showman, Noland Painter, also had a
chance to test his skills at showing one of Alice’s
goats during the “practice” show for kids under the
first grade.
Saturday was a very long and busy day for these
two youngsters. The two, however, learned a lot
about other dairy goats and had a great day. Con
gratulations to Davon and Alice and good luck at
Davon with Lily showing off their 1st place
showmanship award.
the Georgia National Fair in Perry in a couple of
weeks.
Alice with Tweety -“Grand Champion
Recorded Grade” doe.
Noland and Moon.
of Human Resources] grant was
cut by $12,000,” Lohman said.
“That pays for the salary of a
part-time worker. We currently
have six and a half [staffers].”
Lohman said she is working
to keep that part-time staffer de
spite the funding cut. "I'm gonna
find the money somewhere,"
Lohman said. "She serves 16
families. That would be 16 fam
ilies without services."
Tough times have brought
cuts to DHR grants statewide at
the same time families in need
are on the increase, Lohman said.
"The more they cut the money,
the more families we have," she
reported. "We have close to 25
families waiting for services.
Everything's full." Given the
staff she has now, local programs
are already at capacity, Lohman
said.
"We can't take any more fam
ilies," she said. "So I desperately
need binding, not only to main
tain the staff I have but to expand
programs to serve the need.
Where that's gonna come from I
have no idea."
Contributions to support the
work of Pickens Family Partners
can be mailed to:
Pickens Family Partners
88 Clinic Road
Tate, GA 30177
For further information,
phone 770-737-6484 or e-mail to
firstfamily@tds.net.
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