By Mark Price
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Posted: Friday, Sep. 04, 2009

The timing has never been better, community support has never been stronger, and the need has never been greater for Mecklenburg County to create a strategic plan for human services.

Just one thing is missing: Someone to take the lead.

Who could do that was the big unanswered question Thursday night, at a public hearing organized by Mecklenburg Ministries, the Community Building Initiative and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Community Relations Committee.

Pat Mumford, director of Neighborhood & Business Services for the city, came closest to answering it when he said a group of community leaders could be created – “a group to use influence to sway public opinion, and put on the pressure to raise money.”

A crowd of about 200 spent two hours debating not just the need for a strategic plan, but ways the community could begin work on it.

Interest in the idea surfaced at a similar meeting in June, and continued in August when officials from Mecklenburg County, the City Council and Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board met and agreed they want to craft such a plan. They didn't have a specific idea for how to proceed, either.

Panelists Thursday night included Mumford; Taylor Batten, the Observer's editorial page editor; Brett Loftis, executive director of the Council for Children's Rights; Dana McDonald, of University Park Baptist Church; and Mary Wilson, director of the county's Department of Social Services.

It was Loftis who offered the most detailed insights, based on his experience creating a similar plan for children's needs. It has been in the works 19 months and will be unveiled in coming weeks.

The key to creating a broader human services plan will be finding someone to put it into action, he said.

“What we as a community have done over and over in the past is get everybody together and make these plans, but with no end result,” said Loftis.

“I'm not saying we shouldn't do it. We just need to be realistic about what it would take to do something that big… People will look to the county and say it can do it. But it probably can't without shifting major resources. I'm not pointing a finger at them. I'm pointing the finger at all of us.”