Cooperation among providers of services to youth and families will continue in Freeborn County, now that the Freeborn County Family Services Collaborative has obtained the necessary approval for one more year of service.

Friday, April 05, 2002

Cooperation among providers of services to youth and families will continue in Freeborn County, now that the Freeborn County Family Services Collaborative has obtained the necessary approval for one more year of service.

When the collaborative was first organized, it was created with a sunset clause, or date by which it would be dissolved without additional action by those responsible for setting it up. So each year since they started up, they have asked for and gotten permission to keep on doing what they do.

The collaborative was first organized via a joint powers agreement by Freeborn County, the Albert Lea School District and the City of Albert Lea. They were joined later by the Alden-Conger and Glenville-Emmons school districts.

The purpose was to coordinate the way the three institutions served youth and families, since there was little communication or cooperation between staff in all three.

According to Marilyn Koprowski, collaborative facilitator, the original impulse was to create more efficiency among county and city agencies and the school district. But the focus quickly changed once the collaborative became part of a federally funded program – the Local Collaborative Time Study – that reimburses local agencies for expenses related to keeping families together, Koprowski said.

With that revenue, which amounts to an average of about $65,000 each quarter, the collaborative has been able to funnel money to projects and programs here in Freeborn County, including a mentoring program and after school activities, among others.

The collaborative creates new committees and task forces as needs are identified, and in the past they have worked to coordinate efforts at fighting head lice infestations among area children, efforts which have shown dramatic success in the past year.

Their newest efforts involve a proposed site-based student health service at the Albert Lea High School and an informational Web site (www.c-net.org) that allows residents to quickly identify agencies that provide needed services.