Julie began her work in the Family Center portion. They focus on Birth to age 3. When she moved here in 2001, she found her 3 best friends through the networking of the Center. They still help each other out and this portion of the group offers play groups and family oriented events.

She told us about the Child Care portion as well. This part gets about 1/3 of its funding from the State Children’s Trust Fund, 1/8 of the funding from Workforce development programs and the rest from smaller grants & fundraising. It focuses on families with children. They work to license child care providers and link parents with the good ones. The idea is to have quality early learning and ensure the workforce can do its job.

One program is Respite Care. Many are single parents with no friends or relatives close by to help. Some just need help with a special needs child. It allows the parent(s) to take time from themselves while giving the child a good environment.

Julie also talked about the Home Visitation program. Sometimes they are ordered as part of a domestic violence court order. They help with the isolation of a rural lifestyle and assist families who are in crisis.

Julie has 2 full-time, 3 part time and 4 part time contract employees. The 4 contract employees generally do the visits. She is concerned about funding cuts when family stress is growing.

Thanks for the wonderful speech!

UPCOMING EVENTS

UPCOMING SPEAKERS

The club approved establishing a second club here in Platteville. The group decided to change the meeting times to the 2nd and 4th Wednesday at Noon at Chicago’s Best. The next meeting will be at Chicago’s Best on October 14th. They hope to Charter in October.

John Dutcher gave us information for ordering Optimist shirts from Land’s End. Click Here, or you can call 1-800-338-2000 to order yours.

The next Board Meeting will be with the new Board. It will meet on Thursday October 8th at 7 AM at Badger Brothers.

Eileen Engelke was the lucky one selected - twice in a row! She drew the 3 of Hearts and won $2! We are down to 1 Joker & she was one card away! The pot is up close to $500! Good luck to next week’s winner.

First there will be our Installation Banquet for our 2009 – 2010 Officers on September 27 at Chicago’s Best starting at 6:00 with social ½ hour, dinner at 6:30 and Installation at 7. Sign up on the web.

We received a "Thank You" from the Orion Club and the Chorale group for our donations. We also received a "Thank You" for our sympathy card to member Tim Murphy upon the passing of his father.