March 7, 2007

Published in Wake Forest, NC

            Director Ross Yeager has begun to talk with the various county departments about what services they want to place in the center. Wake County government has experience with setting up regional centers since the Northern Center is the third, but Yeager and others want to know if there are special needs in this area.

            “The picture will come into much clearer focus in the coming months and after we conduct the community forums to hear issues and identify potential partnerships,” he said.

            The center may not be able to provide everything people say they want, Yeager said, because of lack of funding or lack of programs for certain needs. However, “You tell us what you need, and by god, we’ll try our best to provide it.”

            Those community meetings will be held in the May-June timeframe, and Yeager has already tapped some people – Rolesville Town Manager Matthew Livingston, for one – for small focus groups.

            Monday morning Yeager chaired a meeting at The Well with several program managers to discuss what several departments plan thus far.

            Sheriff Donnie Harrison plans there will be four to six deputies stationed at the center, and Yeager said their primary focus may be juvenile crime.

            The county inspections and environmental departments also plan to staff offices at the center. It will cut travel time for the inspectors – building plans, plumbing, etc., as well as sediment and erosion control – and Yeager said it may be possible for people to apply at that office for the various permits. “Part of our purpose is to streamline things.”

            The Cooperative Extension office, which is a partnership between the county and some local colleges, already has a team set up for the area. Its targets are youngsters between 5 and 19, and it plans to serve about 1,500 children.

            Economic programs may have a large office because the projection is their service population will grow from 3,400 to 4,000 families once the center opens. The families will be looking for help from programs such as Work First, adult Medicaid, child and family Medicaid, and food assistance. There will be two blended teams, Yeager said, with each team consisting of specialists in several areas. Each team would be capable of handling all the needs of a family or individual.

            Karen Best, a clinic program manager with Human Services, said they hope to have an outreach program as well as a site for testing and counseling for STDs and HIV.

            The immunization clinics – Shots ‘R Us – will have an office for childhood and adult immunizations and TB shots, but, Best said, not for the foreign travel immunizations because those are have such complex requirements. There could be a flu clinic in season and rabies and Hepatitis A clinics as needed.

            “This is an opportunity to do things differently,” Ida Dawson, a clinic program manager in the area of women’s health services, said. As well as providing the immunization against cervical cancer, she would like to see a more comprehensive approach, including such preventative measures as pap smears and mammograms for women past their child-bearing years. She and others agreed there is an “astonishing” lack of mammogram screening in this area.

            “Seventy percent of the people we see have no insurance,” Best said. “They have no money to pay” for medical care or preventative care.

            Another service that will speak to the needs of many people locally is child welfare. Thee are about 500 families in the area who are already being seen for protective services or foster care, and the center wants to partner with the faith community, the DuBois Center and the W.E.B. DuBois Community Development Corporation.

            Again, the blended teams have already been formed and are already working on their mission in the northern Wake area.

            The bad news is that Yeager has been told the center, first scheduled to open in December of this year, will not open until January of 2008.

            Also, for some time the construction work will demand the workers shut down the library’s parking lot. Parking will be available, as it is now, on the street.

            The up side of this is that Yeager is already planning to provide conference room space to the library for programs and meetings.

            If you have some particular concerns or want to see a specific service, you can reach Yeager at 404-3987 and at ryeager@co.wake.nc.us. You can also attend the community meetings this spring.