On Saturday, March 29, the Bulloch County Family Connection Collaborative and the Positive Childhood Alliance united together to create the 15th Annual Stronger Together: Family Picnic and Community Resource Fair, reflecting the aspects of true community collaboration.
Volunteers, members of the planning committee, and all of the various non-profit organization vendors were scattered throughout the resource fair, educating many families on the resources available to them in Bulloch County.
Their goal was to help prepare each family for any situation that may arise in their own household.
The vendors at the event established a precedent of finding various creative ways of educating families on all of the essential resources their organization offers each family.
Each vendor at the resource fair moved with the overall mission of strengthening each household with what they have to offer in their programs.
This was not only an opportunity to support the community with informative resources, but it also was an opportunity for people to come out to an exciting fair full of fun activities for all ages.
The resource fair offered Bulloch County's massive, innovative Book Bus, where children and parents could sit down and get lost reading various genres of books the bus offered.
The fair provided food for each family and member of the community in attendance to ensure everyone received what they needed while they walked through the event.
The event also received massive assistance from the Bulloch County Sheriff's Department as they helped many families sign their children up for the department's Child ID Program.
Families can register their child with the program so in the event something ever goes wrong, they've got that initial link with the sheriff's department to assist them in any situation.
Catherine Hendrix, Director of the Bulloch County Family Connection Collaborative, and Lora Cooper, Director of the Positive Childhood Alliance, both played massive roles in organizing this event.
Each director pushed the message of wanting to strengthen the community and families.
“We want to strengthen families, and if families don't know these resources are available to them, they're not going to be able to take advantage of them. We've got various resources here, from mental health to healthcare and job assistance," Cooper shared. "All of these things are free of charge to members of the community. But again, if they don't know about them, they can't participate in these programs."
The Annual Stronger Together: Family Picnic and Community Resource Fair plans to continue expanding the event and their outreach in efforts of always positively strengthening the families within the Bulloch County community.
