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Cabarrus County Partnership for Children Henry-Nordan Building 102 L~I~~ Concord Road Concord, NC 28025 Mr. Charles C. Harris, Chief Children' Services Section Division of Social Services 325 N. Salisbury Street Raleigh, NC 27603 June 15, 2000 Dear Mr. Harris: I am submitting a grant from the Cabarrus Community Child Protection Team for the CCPT Opportunity Grant. The Cabarms team has been a consistently strong team since 1991, with a history of meeting monthly from the beginning and maintaining records of all meetings. The team has been a community model of interdiscplinary activity. A core group of members have been involved and active since the beginning, and we have added members as needed to maintain wide community representation. After five years of leadership from within Social Services, the team has now been led for four years by a member from another organization. We have reported regularly to the County Commissioners, and I am including copies of the last four reports. We have organized and led two Children's Vigils, in October 1998 and April 2000, to honor the memories of children in North Carolina and Cabarms County who have died as a result of child abuse. Both received extensive publicity from the media, enabling us to reach a large audience with information about mandatory reporting and child protection. Some members met for two days with Debra McHenry from your office in May, 2000, to carry out a child fatality review. We have prepared the written report and planned the CCPT meeting on August 23 at which all agencies involved in any way with the investigation will be present. Ms. McHeury can attest to the strength of the Cabarrus team and the collaborative way in which it has done its work. We have participated in other advocacy activities, supported the work of other teams in regards to support of legislation and played a major role in the establishment of the Children's Advocacy Center, a multi-disciplinary center for the medical evaluation and investigation of child physical or sexual abuse. We have been actively involved in the activities planned by the Cabarrus Partnership for Children (Smart Start), several of which have strong child protection focuses. The grant is very important to our county, as it will allow us to plan and carry out a community campaign for infant safety, a project that our team has identified a great need, especially in the light of the two infant deaths in Cabarms County in September and October, 1999. We appreciate the support from the Division of Social Services and the opportunity to submit this application! Sincerely, Anne Laukaitis, Chair Cabarms Community Child Protection Team