| History The establishment of the Charlottesville/ Albemarle Commission on Children and Families in the spring of 1998 reflected a common goal to coordinate the community’s planning for local children and families. By merging two bodies concerned with children and families--the citizen-member Charlottesville/Albemarle Commission on Children and Youth (CACY Commission) and the state-mandated Community Policy Management Team--local policy-makers, agencies, and citizens opted to form one body with a mission to improve outcomes for children and families. The Joint Agreement between the County and the City, approved in October of 1997, spells out the task envisioned for the new Commission: "to plan, coordinate, monitor, and evaluate a community-wide system for all children and family agencies and programs." In addition to its local mandate, Commission members have the responsibility, granted by the Commonwealth of Virginia, to administer combined annual state and local resources of over ten million dollars dedicated to services for children in need. Commission members carry the legal responsibility for developing long-range planning and monitoring the management and expenditures for the Comprehensive Services Act funds and the Virginia Community Crime Control Act. |
Art courtesy of Global Children's Art Gallery, www.naturalchild.org