Serving the needs of many continues to be the sole focus of the Carter County Community Advisory Board.
Members met at the Elizabethton/Carter County Public Library to strategize future endeavors while unveiling a handful of future programs that will look to serve the citizens of the community.
CAB has various events coming through the pipeline in the coming months, with one set to take place next week.
The monthly clothing giveaway inside the community center at the library resumes February 9 and 10 with opportunities for citizens to receive wearable items.
Each month the clothing continues to pick up steam after receiving an abundance of attention during their opening dates in November.
“It’s a beautiful thing,” Cheri Tinney, community resource specialist for the library and CAB member, recently told the Elizabethton Star. “This is another networking opportunity collaboration with many different people, organizations, and groups to make something like this happen. This isn’t because of us; it is because of our community and the people that care about our neighbors.”
During Thursday’s meeting, Tinney thanked the support from the recent giveaways and said the library has their upstairs full of various clothes available.
With assistance from Red Legacy Recovery, there is a multitude of women’s clothing, but Tinney said the library could accept any children or men gently-used attire that the public may no longer need anymore.
“We can accept donations, but it has to be the day before the event,” she said. “Anybody that wants to donate needs to bring it to the library on February 8.”
The event will last all day on that Thursday and Friday, with Tinney noting the event receives success during days when the library is densely populated with foot traffic.
CAB member Jilian Reece also provided an upcoming on the Backyard Gardens program offered by Build It Up East Tennessee.
In partnership with Build It Up, CAB was able to reserve 15 spots to be used for the program just for county residents. Reece added the feedback for the event was successful with 29 applicants submitting their information to be part of the initiative.
With the deadline now passed, board members will decide on the candidates with the first workshop for the program scheduled to take place in March.
Jessica Livesay, RN, BSN, was the special guest speaker at the meeting promoting East Tennessee State University’s Northeast Tennessee Nurse-Family Partnership Demonstration Project.
According to the ETSU website, the Partnership, “is particularly exciting because it truly represents an effort to alleviate poverty across two generations by assisting low-income women with their first pregnancy, with motherhood and all the challenges that go along with raising a child.”
Livesay will serve as the nurse of Carter and Sullivan counties, but the project spans into the eight counties of Northeast Tennessee.
More information on the partnership, which is individuals can apply for if they qualified within Department of Human Services’ qualifications, can be found on the ETSU website.