In Bryan County Family Connection Director Wendy Sims Futch’s job, data tells an important story about the people BCFC and its partners seek to serve.

On Thursday, Futch and representatives of a number of those partners -- some public, some private -- will gather at the Bryan County Sheriff’s Office in Richmond Hill to take an up-close look at the most recent local data available.

That data, compiled by Georgia Family Connection and its local branches on all 159 of Georgia’s counties, comes from various sources, ranging from GFC’s KIDS COUNT to the U.S. Census to state government agencies such as the Department of Family and Children’s Services to local school systems.

Compiled, the data provides both a county-wide snapshot of local families and children and, when required, can be broken down further, such as by zip code. The data covers a number of categories, and ranges, for example, from education data, such as the number of high school graduates to employment data, such as how many children have parents without secure employment, and child safety, such as the number of substantiated child abuse or neglect cases per 1,000 in a year.

In Bryan County, more than 92 percent of adults in 2023 had at least a high school education, and in 2024 there were 930 children with parents who didn’t have secure employment. And there were 31 substantiated incidents of child abuse or neglect per 1,000 residents in Bryan County in 2024.

For Futch, the yearly data review is “the state of families and children in Bryan County,” she said. “It helps us see if we’re trending in the right direction and if there’s something as a collaborative we need to focus on. We’re very data driven.”

While much of the data for Bryan County is positive and shows the county fares better than the state in a range of categories, Futch noted there are concerns. One area is a sudden increase in babies born with low birth weights – the county’s rate is 9.9 percent, and that’s close enough to the state rate of 10.3 percent to warrant a closer look, Futch said.

“There may be a number of reasons for that,” she said. “It may be food insecurity, or access to prenatal care, but it’s something to look at.”

Another area of concern, Futch said, are the results of the Georgia Student Health survey, a statewide, anonymous survey, showing in 2024 more than 28 percent of students in Bryan County Schools in grades sixth through 12 said they “felt depressed, sad or withdrawn” for at least six days in the previous month.

“We’re not sure why that is, but it seems like kids are more stressed and anxious than they’ve ever been,” Futch said. “That’s why we’ll be looking at it (at the retreat), to figure out why and see if there’s any programs we can implement to help.”

There’s also an increase in the number of grandparents in Bryan County who are raising their grandchildren – “we’re seeing a lot of that,” Futch said, “so finding a way to support them is a piece we may try to incorporate into our plans, but that’s not a decision I can make on my own. This is a collaborative, and there is a board, and we have to make the decision as a whole.”

Bryan County Family Connection is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. Futch has been working for BCFC for 22 of those years, and was named director in 2008.

Among the agencies who have representatives working with BCFC on a regular basis are Bryan County Schools, DFCS, the Department of Juvenile Justice, the Department of Public Health, the United Way, and various civic groups, nonprofits and faith-based organizations and churches who serve families and children.