Strategic Spartanburg

The following were suggested by the taskforce for Goal 4:

Teen Pregnancy:
1.  Businesses providing opportunities and incentives (and widely publicizing them) for parenting education, parent/youth education, and communication about sexuality. If the parents come, they get lunch and/or they get paid for the time they are in the class.
2.  Churches providing faith-based sexuality education programming in their Sunday School classes or Vacation Bible School. There are several reputable curricula that include levels for all ages – preschool through to grandparenthood.
3.  Youth serving organizations incorporating science-driven, pregnancy prevention techniques and curricula into their programming.
4.  Funders making funding to youth-serving organizations contingent on what the group is doing to address youth sexuality.
5.  Parent-Teacher Organizations telling school administrators what they want/need re:sexuality education for kids in school.
6.  Pregnancy Prevention Organizations training “walk and talkers” – those movers and shakers in the community whom everyone knows, but who may have no formal credentials. The Walk and Talkers then walk and talk to everyone in the neighborhood about what they should be doing to prevent pregnancy among the teens.
7.  One-stop shopping for education, counseling, clinical services: Someone comes in for an STD or pregnancy test, they don’t leave until they get counseling, education and plenty of contraception.
8.  Public and private partnerships for airtime, space, and distribution of media messages.
9.  Schools providing retreats for middle-school students and their parents, focusing on communication skills between the students and parents, including discussion of sexuality issues. Encourage parent and student involvement in the planning of this.
10. Schools publish a newsletter for parents on adolescent health. Include books and resources. (The Health Resource Center currently does this).

Domestic Violence
1.  Coordinated Media Public Awareness Campaigns (TV, Radio, Billboard, and Print).
2.  Workplace Training Programs
3.  School-based education/prevention programs. SHRCC provides programs in the schools for grade 3 through college. They are developing a program for Kindergarten-Grade 2.
4.  State and Community-Wide Domestic Violence Coordinating Councils. Spartanburg has had a County Council appointed Domestic Violence Board since the mid 1980’s. DSS works with this existing board to staff cases where domestic violence and child abuse coincide.
5.   Interdisciplinary Response Teams and Fatality Review Teams. The City of Spartanburg recently received a federal grant to develop an interdisciplinary Domestic Violence Task Force to review high-risk cases of domestic violence, and a Domestic Violence Fatality Review Team.
6.  Supervised Visitation Centers. These centers offer safe and supervised visitation for parents who are court-ordered to be supervised during visits due to abuse issues. Carolina Counseling offers such a center locally, and they also offer Batterer’s Treatment programs.
7.  Family Justice Centers, SHRCC recently renovated a large building for this purpose. Other community partners (i.e. law enforcement, solicitor’s office, legal services, DSS, and SADAC) will have offices onsite and offer collaborative services at the center. In San Diego, they have reduced their domestic violence homicide rate by 50%, and they credit the collaborative family justice center approach for this change.
8.  Emergency Shelters (24 hour) in every county. Spartanburg’s emergency shelter covers Spartanburg, Cherokee and Union counties. Union has a transitional shelter.
9.  State funding for shelters. Shelters do receive some state funding, but it is insufficient to cover every county.
10. Screen clients in every Emergency Room and doctor’s office for domestic violence; 30% of women seen in the ER are there due to domestic violence.
11. Centralized, specialized criminal domestic violence courts. Spartanburg County initiated a CDV Court in 2004, but it still needs work.
12. Accessible, low-cost legal representation in child custody, separation and divorce cases caused by
domestic violence. SC Centers for Equal Justice offers some such services, but not nearly enough.
13. Bi-lingual, culturally diverse staff in social service and criminal justice agencies. There are a few
Spanish-speaking advocates, but not nearly enough to meet the demand. Spanish-speaking
therapists are almost impossible to find.
14. Shelters and services fully accessible to disabled. Our shelter is accessible

Child Abuse and Neglect:
There are numerous prevention programs nationally that have proven to be effective. Some of the
most successful involve parent education programs and parent support groups, family resource centers,
early childhood education and home visitation programs.

We are fortunate to have many of these type services available. The following are some of the best
existing services in Spartanburg County which have a direct impact on child abuse and neglect through education, counseling and treatment services;
• Southside learning Center
• Boys and Girls Club
• First Steps
• Adult Education
• Middle Tyger Resource Center
• Spartanburg Alcohol and Drug Abuse
• Spartanburg Teen Pregnancy Prevention Council
• Carolina Counseling
• Family Care Council

Child Poverty
There are many programs across the nation and in Spartanburg County that address the prevention of
child poverty and improve the lives of low-income families. Proven and promising programs
nationwide are:
• Early Headstart
• Teen Outreach Programs
• LifeSkills Training
• Smart Start
• Parents As Teachers
• Mentoring Programs
• Partners In Reading