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Agency Highlights

Blackwater Regional Library

Program Funded: Summer Reading Program

Branches: Ruth Camp Campbell in Franklin and Walter Cecil Rawls in Courtland

Number of People Served in 2018: 2,989

This program significantly impacts the children and teens of our community by:

• Helping to mitigate the loss of reading skills due to lack of constructive activities and the greatly reduced amount of reading done over the summer months;

• Helping to close the achievement gap between children from low- and middle-income families;

• Fostering intellectual curiosity, self-expression and creativity, all vital for literacy development;

• Offering children and parents the opportunity to discover the joy and sharing of books and acquire a lifelong interest in reading;

• Attracting families from diverse backgrounds;

• Taking place in an attractive, comfortable environment that may be one of the only safe places in a child's or teen's life;

• Allowing children to create their own learning process through their direct involvement in the explorations, reflections, and discoveries gained at the library weekly throughout the summer;

• Offering children the opportunity to include Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) in their everyday life through experiences in STEM programming;

• Taking advantage of many free services such as computers and Wi-Fi access.

For more information about the Blackwater Regional Library or the Summer Reading Program, visit www.blackwaterlib.org.

      

Boys & Girls Club of Southeast Virginia

Program Funded: Franklin Unit Power Hour & DIY STEM Program

Location: S.P. Morton Elementary School

Number of Students Served in 2018: 222

The Boys & Girls Club of Southeast Virginia works with young people from disadvantaged economic, social and family circumstances. They are dedicated to ensuring that our community's children and teens have greater access to quality programs, increased opportunity, and experiences that will enhance their lives and shape their futures. The Franklin Unit currently provides a safe place for 222 children, ages 6-18, during after-school hours from 2:00 PM to 8:00 PM and during summer break from 8:30 AM- 5:00 PM.

Power Hour is an academic achievement program that ensures every minute counts. Clubs spend one full hour working with Club members to ensure that they are finishing their school-work and engaging in high-yield learning activities. Throughout this time, members are offered homework help, tutoring services, learning activities and lessons that aim to encourage participation.

DIY STEM is a hands-on, activity-based STEM curriculum which connects youth ages 9-12 to science themes that currently include five unit activities focused in the following areas; Energy and Electricity, Engineering Design, Food Chemistry, Introduction to Aeronautics, and the Science of Sports. Each unit provides members with lessons on the principles and a compelling and fun activity that allows them to use what they learned to fulfill a scientific experiment.

     

Edmarc Hospice for Children

Program Funded: Medical Services, Bereavement, Perinatal Care and Patient & Family Support

Number of Families Served in 2018 in Franklin & Southampton County: 22

The mission of Edmarc Hospice for Children is to ease the trauma of child’s illness or death and to reduce the disabling effects of pediatric illness, loss and bereavement. Families face overwhelming challenges when a child is sick. Children need to be surrounded – physically and emotionally – by the people and things that they love. That’s why Edmarc helps seriously ill children stay comfortably at home with their families whenever possible and their services give comfort, strength and support to the entire family.

Edmarc’s team of registered nurses provides physician-directed care in the comfort of families’ homes 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If children are lucky enough to win their battles, they become a healthy discharge from the program. Or they may transition into end-of-life care, providing the most comfort possible during their final days.

Medical Social Workers help families cope and offer support during a very difficult time. Some of the services Edmarc offers to families include counseling for family members, coordinating financial and supportive resources, assisting with legacy-building activities, helping with funeral planning, and providing individual and group support options for patients, parents and siblings.

Edmarc offers one-on-one support for bereaved families including home visits and telephone calls, as well as customized educational materials about the grief process for each family, based on their needs.

          

Foodbank of Southeast Virginia and the Eastern Shore

Programs Funded: Mobile Food Pantry, Kids Café, BackPack Program & Healthy School Market

Number of Individuals Served in 2018: 10,957

Number of Meals Distributed: 486,920

The Foodbank of Southeast Virginia provided 486,920 meals to hungry families in Franklin and Southampton County in 2018. Food was distributed through many different outlets including the mobile food pantry, the Kids Café, and the school BackPack program. There are 2 primary mobile food pantry sites in our community that provide a means for individuals and families to receive food when they cannot travel to an agency, or their local agency is at-capacity. Monthly distributions are held at the Franklin Armory and the Courtland Farmers Market. In addition to the mobile pantries, there are 7 churches and one agency that distributes food provided by the Foodbank.

The Kids Café after-school program was created by Feeding America™ and is administered by the Foodbank. It is a place where children ages 5 through 18 can go to receive free, nutritious evening meals in a safe, supportive environment. Throughout the school year and during the summer, the Foodbank operates the Kids Café at the Boys and Girls Club. When school is out for summer break, kids can still access meals through other Summer Feeding Sites.

The BackPack program is provided in all 5 of the local public elementary schools. The backpacks are filled with food that children take home on weekends. Food is child-friendly, non-perishable, and easily-consumed. Backpacks are discreetly distributed to children on the last day before the weekend or holiday vacation.

The Foodbank has added a new program in 2019 that battles food insecurity in our community by providing fresh fruits and vegetables distributed by the local school systems. The Healthy School Markets have been held at Capron Elementary School, Riverdale Elementary School and JP King Middle School. Families that attend the Healthy School Markets shop for free, fresh fruits and vegetables and events are seeing attendance of over 100 families.

The Foodbank is looking to expand services to Franklin and Southampton County in the coming year as this area is known as a “healthy food desert” with not many options for groceries, markets and home delivery to seniors and homebound members of the rural community. 

             

 

            

Franklin Cooperative Ministry 

Program Funded: Food Pantry, Prescription Medicine Assistance and Emergency Dental Extraction

Number of Students Served in 2018: 1,627

The mission of the Franklin Cooperative Ministry is: Focusing on the needs of others in our community; Cooperating with other agencies to maximize our resources; Making a difference in the quality of life for as many as we are able. Their goal is to support people in times of distress or deprivation, but not to foster dependency. They provide limited emergency assistance to the City of Franklin, Southampton County and southern Isle of Wight County.

In 2018, Franklin Cooperative Ministry’s Food Pantry gave out a total of 1,701 bags. Clients are able to receive food bags one time every other month, unless there is a special need. For the past couple of years, the pantry has had an increased need for food and has had to purchase food to meet the community’s needs. Donations from local businesses, organizations churches and individuals are always in need year-round.

The Franklin Cooperative Ministry also assists with emergency dental extractions. In 2018, they were able to resolve dental emergencies for 16 people by partnering with local dentists to resolve pain that resulted in lost work hours and interruption to daily routines for patients.

Prescription medicine assistance is available to help those in need. Most of the prescriptions filled were for cardiac patients with multiple other health issues.

The Franklin Cooperative Ministry continues to operate the Clothing Closet at 511 N. Main Street in Franklin, receiving donations from the community and sharing with those in need.

           

James L. Camp, Jr. YMCA 

Program Funded: Fourth Grade Water Safety Program

Number of Students Served in 2018: 152

Fourth grade students from the local schools are given an opportunity to learn lifesaving skills in and around water. Each fourth-grade class is transported by their school to the James L. Camp, Jr. Family YMCA. The students receive time in the pool and practice techniques that can help them and others when in and around different bodies of water such as pools, lakes and the ocean. Many of the children who participate have never been in a pool or had instruction on how to safely be in and around a body of water. This program exposes all students to lifesaving skills that will hopefully keep them safe around water.

     

Tidewater Youth Services 

Program Funded: Franklin School-Based Case Management Program

Location: J.P. King Middle School

Number of Students Served in 2018: 21

Housed at J.P. King, Jr. Middle School, the School-Based Program has an established record of positive outcomes with youth deemed at high risk for delinquency and dropping out of school. Enrollment is based on several risk factors and predictors of delinquency, including possible retention in the same grade in school, failure of core courses, inappropriate school behavior, chronic absenteeism, poor grades, and need for supportive services. Twenty-one students participated in the 2018-19 program that included an Academic Survival Skills/Building Your Study Skills Workshop to prepare the youths and their parents for the academic year.

The program tackles two primary goals with specific actions. The first goal is to prevent involvement in the criminal justice system. This is accomplished by increasing family problem-solving skills, engaging in pro-social activities, coordinating participation in school extracurricular activities, coordinating services with community recreation and the Commission's Outdoor Adventure Program, conducting Aggression Replacement Training and increasing supervision by parents or guardians.

The second goal is promotion to the next grade level. This is accomplished by providing tutorial services as needed, teaching appropriate study habits, providing educational assistance with appropriate referrals, monitoring daily progress in classrooms, monitoring attendance and providing outreach when truancy occurs.

Program youth participated in the annual Summer Enrichment Program this year. Highlights of the program included the annual Chesapeake Bay charter fishing trip, the fourth annual Amtrak trip to Richmond, and a mountain bike outing. A highlight for the program throughout the school year is maintaining garden boxes on the J.P. King Middle School grounds.  

        

 

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