Rockmart’s Goodson named to new Georgia Parent Advisory Council
A new parent council will offer advice and recommendations to the state child-welfare agency on ways to prevent child abuse and neglect.
The Georgia Divsion of Family and Children Services announced the creation of their new Georgia Parent Advisory Council, made up of volunteers with lived experience in accessing community-based prevention services available to families in Georgia or with lived experience in the child welfare system.
Among those who will be serving as an inaugural member on the council is Rockmart’s Lydia Goodson. She comes to this new role with lots of experience in providing help in communitybased services.
Goodson is an Outreach Coordinator for Mosaic Place Addiction Recovery Support Center in Cedartown and is a certified Addiction Recovery Empowerment Specialist which enables her to share the story of her own recovery. She also serves with Polk Against Drugs, and on the parent council for her children’s school. Goodson and her husband have four children together and are active in Victory Baptist Church.
She is ready to get to work.
“I am so excited to be representing Polk County on the GAPAC team,” she said. “Advocating for rural communities and how services are provided to families is an honor. Just goes to show how past struggles can become our biggest strengths.”
Members of the new advisory council include birth parents, adoptive parents or foster parents of children coping with difficult circumstances. Other members were in foster care themselves. Each member is committed to advocate for children.
“The variety of members is one of the strengths of the council because it will bring a healthy range of diverse insights and opinions to our work,” Natalie Towns, director of child abuse prevention for the agency’s Prevention and Community Support Selection, said. “We are seeking their input because we value the parent voice and authentic parent engagement.”
The Parent Advisory Council will weigh in on strategies for helping the agency promote resources to prevent the main causes of child abuse and neglect. Georgia gets more than 140,000 reports annually of alleged child abuse, mostly related to neglect.
Child neglect most commonly results from social and environmental influences such as substance abuse, mental illness, poverty and lack of parenting knowledge. Community-based prevention services can be very effective in addressing these risk factors for child abuse and neglect.