By By Bill Crist, Special to The Advance
The Coalition for a Healthier Escambia County also heard an update from Yvonne Grissett, Program Director for the Atmore Family Life Center at its meeting last Saturday morning. She said that over the summer, 193 children were served at the Center's day camp program that ran from June 10 through July 19.
She said that in the future, the Center would like to add literacy and job training programs and has applied for a drug prevention grant and has begun working with the state to introduce an afternoon meal program.
Alabama Cares discussed
Gay, who heads up the Alabama Cares program for the South Alabama Regional Planning Commission, updated the Coalition at its meeting.
She said that the purpose of Alabama Cares is to provide services that will help caregivers to continue their caregiving efforts, which in turn, will allow care-recipients to remain in the community for a longer period of time.
However, Gay said the program has been suspended until the new fiscal year, which begins on Oct. 1, 2002. Once it resumes, among the items that the program will provide are information about services, assistance in obtaining services, counseling to help caregivers cope, respite to give caregivers a break and supplemental services to help fill the gaps.
The Coalition also heard updates on several of the projects that members are involved in, ranging from Kidsearch to Care Team Network training events.