The Crawford County Collaborative has identified the following priorities for 2005:  Development of a Free Medical Clinic, Mentoring, Family-to-Family Foster Care, and Fund Development.  We are pleased to announce that our Free Clinic will begin serving patients in September, 2005. The clinic is located in Crawford County and will offer services 1 day per week to uninsured, low-income residents of Crawford, Roscommon and Montmorency Counties. 

Family-to-Family foster care is moving along as it begins working in Crawford and Otsego counties. We are nearly fully staffed and have begun having our team decision meetings relative to placement/reunification issues surrounding children in the foster care system.

Our mentoring initiative is progressing. Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northern Michigan and MSU Extension are the lead agencies in this area. A mentoring coalition has been formed in Crawford County and monthly meetings are held.

Fund Development has begun for the Crawford County Collaborative Body. We intend to implement a consistent focus and offer collaborative trainings throughout the year on how member agencies and research for funding opportunities, complete grant applications, develop proposals, and focus on outcomes based performance measures. With the project budget situation within MI, it is imperative that our agencies begin to look at fund development as a daily function of their organizations.