FAYETTEVILLE – The Fayetteville-Cumberland County Continuum of Care (CoC) on Homelessness installed new officers during a ceremony June 26 in the Pate Room at Headquarters Library. The CoCis made up of agencies and stakeholders with a goal to prevent and significantly reduce homelessness in the Fayetteville and Cumberland County community.
Officers for the 2018-2019 CoC Board of Directors are:
Chair Laressa Witt of Alliance Behavioral Healthcare
Vice Chair Shelly Hudson of the Salvation Army
Secretary Debbie Brown, individual advocate
Treasurer Ivonne Anton of Cumberland Healthnet
“The goal of the CoC is to develop and improve community-wide systems so homelessness is rare, brief and non-recurring,” Witt said. “This is done by connecting individuals to housing, employment and treatment services.”
The installation ceremony was followed by an orientation for the entire CoC Board of Directors. Board members at large are Michelle Blanding, Floyd Burton, Tonja Butler, Mark Davis, Antonio Gardner, Denise Giles, Gilmer Long, Angelita Marable, Paul Taylor, Adolf Thomas, Lindsey Wofford and Dee Taylor, Cumberland County Community Development Interim Director. Board members serve three-year terms.
The Fayetteville-Cumberland County Continuum of Care began in 1996 as the Cumberland County Continuum of Care Planning Council. Continuums are mandated through the Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing (HEARTH) Act of 2009, which consolidated Housing and Urban Development competitive grant programs to form the CoC Program.
Cumberland County Community Development is the lead agency in the Fayetteville-Cumberland CoC. The continuum’s goal is to create an annual action plan to address homelessness by defining the scope of homelessness; developing an inventory of current resources; identifying gaps in services and prioritizing unmet needs. Membership in the CoC includes representatives from private for-profit and non-profit businesses and public agencies.
For more information, contact Cumberland County Community Development at 910-321-6112 or go to co.cumberland.nc.us/community-dev. The office is located at 707 Executive Place, Fayetteville.