By Jasmine Stark
There are many organizations and programs available to assist families here in Monroe County but it can be difficult for the average resident to find the right resources for their unique situations. This year, Family connection aims to close that gap by bringing the many organizations together into a solid network and by acting as the one stop shop to connect families to the resources that they need to be successful.
Family Connection is a state wide organization with local branches in each county in Georgia. For the past few years, Monroe County’s branch of Family Connection has been on hiatus as it has been restructuring but with the hiring of Margaret Holloway as their new director, Monroe County Family Connection is ready to get back to work.
Family Connection focuses on five key result areas: Healthy Children, Children Primed For School, Children Succeeding in School,Self-Sufficient and Productive Families, and Communities that Thrive.
Margaret Holloway’s experience and personal mission in life seem to fit like a puzzle piece into this role. She has over two decades of experience in education working as a Spanish teacher, an assistant principal, as well as a social/emotional learning and family engagement coordinator for a school district in Illinois.
She also has experience starting and running her own business, AgapeMe, which provides coaching and workshops aimed at “cultivating good humans”.
The mission statement of AgapeMe is “to partner with organizations and families to cultivate good humans” which Holloway feels aligns perfectly with the mission of Family Connection.
Holloway moved to Monroe County in 2021 and joined the chamber of commerce hoping to find a way to get involved in the community and that is where she found out about Family Connection. When she found out their mission aligned so well with her own mission, she knew she had to get involved. Soon she joined the board and on July 1st she was named the new executive director.
Though the mission is the same, there are many parts of this role that are new to Margaret but the challenge of learning the role only seems to motivate her. She says she has a strong love for learning and is excited to grow into this position. She is most excited about building a network of organizations and resources that will make finding help easy for Monroe County Families.
This year Monroe County Family Connection’s goals are mostly internal with the goal of hiring a new director, already completed. Their remaining goals include training their board members in governance best practices, educating potential partners about building a resilient and trauma-informed community that leads to reduced cases of child abuse and neglect, and working with their partners to maximize available resources and reduce redundancies when planning community-wide events.
Monroe County Family Connection hosts regular meetings and welcomes anyone who shares their values and goals to attend. They are also available to contact by email at FamilyConnection@monroecoga.org
Whether you are part of an organization that offers resources and want to be a part of their network, or part of a family in need of community support, they would be happy to hear from you.
