VALDOSTA — Great Start Georgia Lowndes thanked local social services providers during its meeting Thursday morning.

GSGL connects families of children from pre-birth to 5 years old with resources such as maternal and child health insurance, employment and housing help and medical services.

“The goal for this program is to teach people how to fish, how to maintain, how to utilize these resources,” said Berinda Nwakamma, GSGL supervisor.

Jill O’Meara remembers the beginnings of GSGL. She is the E3Z community coordinator. The E3Z sponsors the GSGL.

“It’s kind of a flip-around because now people are telling me what a great job Great Start Georgia does,” O’Meara said.

O’Meara said the current grant funds GSGL into 2018.

“Through our screening campaign we identify families. From there, we identify needs. The goal for our board is to discuss what are our needs in the community,” Nwakamma said.

GSGL has a board made up of representatives from local providers including Goodwill Valdosta, Living Bridges Ministry, Behavioral Health Services, WellCare, Paxen and several other organizations.

GSGL can be contacted by phone at (229) 671-8462 or online www.greatstartgeorgia.org.