?w Local Partnership For Children Planning New 'Smart Start ' Push BY SUSAN USHER A lack of child development aad p? ? ?*?g education for parents and others who csst for children. Tbo many children who start school without the skills they need to succeed. Tbo many children starting school without proper immunizations from disease. A lack of affordable, appropriate day care. More children eligible for Head Start pre school than there is space available to serve them A lack of classroom space for pre-kindergar ten classes. Acctss to health care and other service* for children hindered by lack of transportation, limit ed agency hours and money, and by bureaucratic tangles. Do you share any of these concerns or others related to preschooi-age children in Brunswick County? If so. Brunswick County's Partnership For Children wants to involve you in efforts to obtain a "Smart Start" grant through the North Carolina Partnership for Children to develop a better way to deliver services needed by preschool children and their families. An organizational meeting will be held Thurs day, Aug. 4, at 5 JO p.m. in the Public Assembly Building at the Brunswick County Government Center at Bolivia. The history of Smart Start and the local project will be reviewed, along with the results of a recent needs and resources survey, and the next steps will be discussed. White Brunswick County isn't necessarily a "shoe-in" for project funding. Chairman Lori Bates of long Beach believes the local partner ship stands a good chance of being one of the 12 projects funded this time around. "Unless we blow it wc should get this," she ?aid. "We should receive around $900,000 to Si mlfHwi" Smut Start it Gov. Jim Hant't package ap proach for improving human asrvicea for pre tchool children, to insure they are ready?in terms of physical, mental and emotional develop ment ? for a successful start in school. In the first round of fending Brunswick County's package was ranked 18th, bat only 12 projects were funded. Another 12 will be funded inis xpuaioei. Bates said SO counties are either dose to in corporating a local partnership or are incorporat ed. Of thoae 20 are "active" in aome fashion. Since the first round of applications the local Partnership received funds from Brunswick County toward conducting s needs assessment to provide more accurate and specific data for plan ning purposes. The local partnership operates under a 29 member board of directors. It has a 178-person mailing list and anticipates developing a working committee structure. Brunswick County Partnership participants have developed a "wish list" of how it would like to addreas aome of the local problems it has iden tified. "One of the main things is a mobile pediatric van," said Bates. "It would travel into local com munities at hoars that are accesaibic to working parents and provide immunizations and perhaps other services. We think that is really important." Also near the top of their list are more staff development for child care center workers and parenting skills classes. There are so many things to look at and try to deai with," said Bates. "One thing we've real ized is that when you intend to help children you have to work with the family." Local parents, educators, churches, service providers, bus mem people, ail interested persons, will have a chance to discusi the needs of local pteachool children and their families and possible solutions to thoae problems during a aeries of meetings in August. After the Aug. 4 organisational meeting, a public meeting will be held each Thursday in August, also at 5 -30 p.m. at the Public Assembly Building, to make sure all viewpoints are incorpo rated into the Smart Start proposal. On Tuesday evenings a team of volunteers will work on drafting and refining the actual ap plication package. Last year the Smart Start initiative involved more than 100 people from all walks of life and ifnwuniiiiB a broad range of community agen cies and organizations. This year, said Bates, the Partnership wants at least 200 people involved. Thoae who cannot attend the Aug. 4 meeting but would like more information can contact Bates at 278-6210. Meeting Sat. Morning For North Bruns. Soccer North Brunswick High School students inter ested in playing on the soccer team this fall are asked to attend a meeting Saturday at 9 a.m. at Northwest Township Park. Coach Randy Collins said prospective team members will be filling out paperwork at the meeting. All players will be required to get a physical before the first practice. Anyooe who cannot attend the meeting or needs more information can call Collins at 371 3665. New BCC Program Seeks To Boost Skills Of Jobless; Underemployed BY SUSAN USHER Brunswick Community College will begin offering a pie-job training program sometime this fall designed to help unemployed and underem ployed workers get jobs or gain skills for future jobs. With a start-up budget of $100,611, BCC was one of 14 cam puses chosen as new Human Re sources Development (HRD) pro gram sites. That will bring the total to 55 campuses throughout the state. "This was unexpected," said Dean of Continuing Education Iny Thrift, who will administer the pro gram. Department of Community College requests to fund additional HRD sites had been considered and rejected in the past "We occasional ly get a good surprise." Thrift said it is doubtful that the new program will be operating by the start of fall quarter on Sept 6, but estimates it will be start some time Hi to fall Thrift has past experience over seeing an HRD program and said the state Department of Community Colleges is ready to assist as well. "It shouldn't take us too long to get darted," he said. "We'll proba ?.*. a. i.!-!-- - a.n uty uc tuitug a itiu-uiuB uireuui. But HRD is not the type of thing that has to operate on a quarter sys tem." Through HRD students are taught how to took for job* and bow to ftmdiflfl ss employees. -HRD blends weU with the JOBS and JTPA programs," said Thrift, two programs that also have voca tfcmil preparation and job placement as their goals, but an open only to specific target groups such as wel & ~ ~ .M9 ? J ?- -a rare recipients or tne uisauvintigeo. "Almost anybody can take an HRD dflML** Statewide a total of 29,622 HRD graduates employment dur ing a 17-year period ending with the j 1991-92 school year, including 2,012 in 1991-92. While all HRD programs must provide pro-vocational orientation ?m motivational additional course contest is developed tod modified according to the employ ment needs of each local communi ty "We can customize classes to meet county needs," said Thrift. "However we need a market for whatever we're upgrading people to." typical instruction includes as sessing students' attitudes, pff**1 sppcaiaHte, interpersonal behavior goals. Students typically work de velop skills in problem-solving, communication and employ ability, such as completing a job applica tion, preparing a resume and han dling job interviews. Instruction can also include short term skills training and basic acade mic instruction. Graduates receive follow-up ser vices for 12 months alter they com plete the program, with staff mem bers monitoring progress and check ing to see if additional training or counseling is HRD programs are evaluated on the basis of their graduates, the number of students completing the program, placed is job or training programs. Increases in earned in come and decreases in public assis tance for graduates are compared to training coats as a measure of pro gram nffirirncy. 20% OFF SUMMER WEAR! Girls9 Lace Shorts $3.18 Girls* Knit Shirts $2.50 Ladies* Shirts a group) $3.90 Ladies* Sundresses $8.99 Join the crowd going to KAD Outlet for savings throughout the store. K&D MFGJsotJot*0 Quality Clothing at Outlet Prices IT'S HARD TO STOPATRANE. tkaXLMOOvfiiaahryauna, MIMAA^AfW I ? n \ a high cffit' ifiH-v hi.it pump in .JuK ,ui(l receive 1 \ car c\ i i i uihor u.in ,mt\. Brunswick Mechanical Co. 120 Blak* Si.,acroM from Sh?Hott? MiddW School ShallotU ? 764-9880 i a i . COCiJNG-HEAriNG Don't settle for less when YOU CAN AFFORD THE BEST Ask us about the BEMC 5% weatherization loan for cooling or heating (mobile homes included) Hucks Mechanical S _ SERVICE -INSTALLATION -SB" ? 8 (910)754-2457 ? Aaggte Hucks ? NC Ue. #14977 + URGENT!! ^^^IRGENTU-f ? The Airlines + J Have Reduced J % Prices! J: ?i* Tnvel between August 15 and December 14. ^ X Purchase by August 2. i Extra 10% senior citizen discount. i Certain restrictions apply ? Book today! ^ FOOR CORNERS TRAVEL SERVICE ^ A 1643 SEASIDE ROAD SW X OCEAN ISLE BEACH, NC 28469 ?fr (910)579-7044 JTk ^ 1-800-9S2-6648 ^ Villa Capri Italian Restaurant, Deli & Bakery Serving Lunch & Dinner Sew Hours No Hroaki'ast Suii