Community Intervention Partnership

In January 1992, the Franklin County Department of Social Services and school districts in Franklin County began an innovative program known as the Community Intervention Partnership (CIP). The purpose of the CIP program is to identify children and families in need of support and to provide services to those children and families during the elementary years and before minor problems become major issues. In 1992 the first of seven Case Managers was placed in an elementary school setting as an important component of the program. The Case Managers function as dual employees of the participating school districts and Franklin County.

The Franklin County Community Intervention Partnership operates under the direction of a county wide liaison committee co-chaired by BOCES District Superintendent, Stephen T. Shafer and Franklin County Commissioner of Social Services, Lesley B. Lyon. The committee is comprised of Superintendents from all school districts as well as the Directors of all human services agencies within Franklin County. It is the united pledge of all participating agencies that services will be made readily available and provided to children and families through the Community Intervention Partnership.

As a result of this program, the county has seen a marked decrease in the placement of elementary school-aged children in foster care and the school districts have seen an enhancement in the performance and development of their elementary school children. It should be pointed out that this initiative has provided a benefit to participating school districts through stabilizing the lives of children and their families and decreasing absenteeism. It also has been a benefit to various Franklin County human services agencies by allowing assistance to be provided at the earliest possible point of intervention.

After fifteen years of operation, the CIP has expanded its role to consider a broader range of approaches to effect positive change in at-risk families and children and to reduce the number of children placed in foster care. To this end, a spectrum of prevention programs for infants and pre-kindergarten children as well as for school age children in grades K -12 have become a part of the CIP focus. It is recognized by the CIP that not all programs and services needed by children and families are currently available in Franklin County and that identification and development of such services is a major objective of the partnership. In recognition of current trends, the CIP expects to direct additional efforts and resources to troubled adolescents in middle and high school.

It is the consensus of all partners that this initiative has brought to Franklin County a program which fills an important leadership role in seeking funding and coordinating initiatives to meet the needs of children and families in ways which have previously not existed.