Orange County NC Website
f <br />PAGE 3 <br />They received last fiscal year a county grant in the amount of $25,500. With these. <br />funds, they provided home health care for 4S patients, making 455 visits and in <br />addition supplied medical equipment and supplies in tli~nount of $3200. H~wever,- <br />the need did not stop there. The Home Health of Chapel Hill provided an additian~l'' <br />$15,000 in home health care in donated services to needy individuals in this <br />County. He described some of the citizens in the county who need this assistance. <br />In order to help meet the growing needs as the County grows and the population -. <br />increases, he respectfully requested an increase in their County grant funds for <br />fiscal year 1990.91. He asked for the Board's continued support. <br />CLARA PAGER, member of the Planned Parenthood Board, thanked the County <br />Commissioners for their support during the past years. One of the primary goals of <br />Planned Parenthood is the prevention of teenage pregnancy. The heart of prevention <br />is education. The education of the preteens and the teenagers with increased <br />communication between the teenager and parents is their goal. The Natural Helpers <br />program has been particularly successful. She asked for the Board's continued <br />support. <br />SUE HARVIN, representing the Dispute Settlement Center as a volunteer, stated they <br />take cases from the court and also help people upon request to solve problems ' <br />between themselves. About 40$ of the cases come from the D.A.'s office. A lot of <br />people came directly to them without referral. They have a youth program which <br />teaches teachers and kids to become conflict managers in their schools. They do a <br />lot of workshops in the high schools. They have a new program which is called <br />Public Disputes where they handle community wide problems such as assisting <br />neighborhoods and government to talk about zoning issues, noise problems, trailer <br />court dog problems, etc. These take a lot of coordination and staff time and then a <br />lot of followup. They did 23 last year. They also are called upon to do <br />facilitating for staff planning. One of the most important programs that is <br />growing is the Community Penalties Program. This is being monitored through the <br />State Division of Crime Control and Public Safety. Non-violent felons who are <br />probably prison bound and the caseworker work either with the public defender or <br />with their defense attorney to make a recommendation to the court at the time of <br />sentencing to keep these people out of jail. This program requires 15~ matching <br />funds from the local agencies. The other area where The Dispute Settlement Center <br />has had a dramatic increase is in the public's awareness of the advisability of not <br />fighting out divorce and separation in court. The volunteers have had special <br />training and this year have already done 82 cases. The county money has helped to <br />support this program. They do charge those people who can pay for this service. <br />PETER KRAMER, Social Worker for Mental Health, talked about the mill closings. <br />OCIM has a Financial Counseling Service to help dislocated workers, two income <br />families and others who have a problem in being self-supporting. The program is <br />financed by the Duke Endowment which pays for a less than full-time person. He <br />feels it extremely important that everyone be able to manage their money. He is a <br />citizen volunteer and Chairman of this committee. He asked that Orange County <br />consider supporting this program. <br />MARY WOOD, Volunteers for Youth, presented four reasons for the County to consider <br />increased financial support far this program. She stated that the Department of <br />Social Services can only serve children and families of dire need. What Orange <br />County desperately needs is a program that can step in and help families before the <br />problems become extreme. Volunteers for Youth is such a program and is very cost <br />effective. Last year with only one full-time director and one part-time clerical <br />