by Tish Morgan and Bob Monroe

Day Five of our adventure as the Leadership Lumpkin Class of 2008 was billed as Community Resources Day, sounding pretty straightforward, right?  However, when Brenda Cronan previewed Day Five, she explained that we would have a morning session followed by a transitional speaker (huh?) and then a very active afternoon session.

     Why we needed a transitional speaker was not clear until we were well into the morning session.  Listening to women describe spousal abuse or sexual abuse of their children by other members of the family and listening to various officials discussing the rampant social problems in rural Georgia, including Lumpkin County, was emotionally wrenching.  So, indeed, Brenda was correct that a transition to the hope offered by Lumpkin County United Way (LCUW) would be welcomed (as was the delicious lunch, catered by Corkscrew Café).

     Though a nationwide organization for many years, United Way is a relative newcomer to Lumpkin County.  Thanks go to a few pioneering individuals who came up with the idea to seek assistance from our big sister down in Gainesville.  For a minimal administrative charge, the Gainesville/Hall County UW helps Lumpkin County collect local monies for distribution to local organizations.  The UW approach relies on a careful screening of applicants and an evaluation of their annual funding requests.  In 2008, the LCUW hired its first part-time staffer.  With the progress already made, it seems certain that this wonderful effort will expand and that one day Lumpkin County will have its own office and staff.  For now, we simply say thanks to our neighbors for helping us! 

     The United Way transition set the stage for an afternoon activity in which class members performed in a truth-based, but fictional, scenario.  After hearing brief presentations from various community resources and learning how they serve those in need, we were given a family-in-need problem to solve.  I, along with another class member, was assigned a family in which parents with limited education and income had a daughter in second grade functioning below grade level and had a four-year-old son with speech problems.  Acting as agents for our assigned family, we talked with many of the organizations set up around the room, discovering that the county has many resources and excellent personnel to help people with their real-life problems of abuse, legal aid, public and mental health, learning disabilities, childcare and protection, and financial assistance for necessities.  With all of the resources in the room, we were able to get fairly quickly the help and guidance our assigned family needed.  If one resource could not help us, we were readily referred to another that could.  The level of interaction and cooperation among social agencies will no doubt continue to be an asset to Dahlonega and Lumpkin County.  However, our exercise in community resources also made us aware that even more are needed to counteract the problems that accompany poverty and lack of education

     All in all, a very educational day!  Several members of the LLC Class of 2008 (the GREATEST class ever!) immediately put their learning into action by volunteering to serve on the Allocation Committee for Lumpkin County United Way.