Valley area prominent in 2016 ‘Georgia Counties of Excellence’

There are 159 counties in Georgia, second only to Texas (which is a whole lot bigger, and apparently ran so short of names it had to dub one of its counties Deaf Smith). But only six of our counties were recognized by the Association County Commissioners of Georgia and Georgia Trend magazine as 2016 Georgia Counties of Excellence.

Columbus-Muscogee County is one of them.

Georgia Trend, in its most recent edition, describes the distinction as one intended “to highlight those counties that are taking the initiative and coming up with creative ways to address local concerns.” In that context, not surprisingly, the award is based on the Home For Good program, a United Way agency that takes innovative approaches to addressing the problem of homelessness in Columbus and around the region.

The magazine notes that this was the only region in the state selected to participate in Zero: 2016, a national program of the nonprofit Community Solutions focused primarily on homeless veterans. The article also highlights the city’s more than 250 HUD housing vouchers, which have helped to provide long-term housing for more than 100 veterans and the “chronically” homeless.

Most people here know about the successes of Home For Good, but not necessarily about how exceptional and pace-setting that success has been. One of the biggest reasons (and this should come as no surprise to most people here) is the breadth, depth and diversity of generous support the effort has attracted. Local United Way President Scott Ferguson told Georgia Trend that 16 other service providers, city government, business communities and individual contributors have a “shared vision” of making homelessness here “atypical and non-recurring.”

What is already atypical, it seems, is a community effort as effective as the one that earned Columbus/Muscogee this distinction.

While we’re on the subject, this wasn’t the only Chattahoochee Valley county among the elite six highlighted by Georgia Trend and ACCG. Troup County, our neighbor just a few miles upriver, was another.

Troup was recognized for the success of its accountability court program – or, more accurately in this case, programs. Accountability court, as defined in the Georgia Trend story, is “a criminal justice reform initiative that provides an alternative to sentencing nonviolent offenders with substance abuse issues.”

Such programs were made possible by the sweeping changes in criminal justice Georgia has made in recent years as a response to prison crowding and mandatory sentences sometimes grossly out of proportion to the crime. The state budgeted some $38 million when the program was created in 2012, but Troup County was one of the counties (including this one) that were years ahead of the curve. It had created a DUI/Drug Court in 2004, a Felony Drug Court in 2011 and a Mental Health Court in 2013.

In 2014, Georgia Trend reported, records showed that just 9 percent of those who had completed the DUI/Drug Court program became repeat DUI offenders. (The average for those who get no intervention or treatment is 35 percent.)

Public recognition for success stories like these is gratifying. The human payoff is far greater.

This story was originally published March 15, 2016 at 4:43 PM with the headline "Valley area prominent in 2016 ‘Georgia Counties of Excellence’."