The Bryan County Turning Point Coalition had a ribbon cutting recently after joining the Durant Area Chamber of Commerce.
The Coalition, a Certified Healthy Initiative Organization (CHIO), is a community- based partnership committed to creating lasting, positive change and promoting the health, safety and well-being of all who live in Bryan County.
Taylor Metz is the chair of the program and she has served with the organization for about four years and served as chair for the last year.
She said the coalition comes together with community partners across Bryan County to work toward discovering the health needs for those in the community.
“Right now, we’re currently trying to regrow,” Metz said. “It was a big coalition prior to COVID and then once COVID happened, everything just kind of dwindled down to a handful of members but this past year, we have been able to grow a little bit and so as we move forward, my goal is to bring more members and strive and grow to do resource fairs, things like that. Our biggest event that we have right now is our annual Back to School Bash where we served over 400 youth and almost 200 families. That’s something that I hope we continue to grow and them myself and the other offi cers, we’re going to strategically plan some other community events with our next one being a resource fair.”
She said she is excited to be a part of the Chamber and the people she works with at Youth Services are a part of the coalition. Courtney Dukes was the chair of the program when Metz became involved four years ago.
“She convinced me to start going and then I just kind of fell into the rhythm of helping with everything, stepped up as secretary and then finally, after some pushing and prodding and Leadership Durant after going through that program and graduating, I finally stepped into the position as chair,” Metz said.
“I want to continue to see this organization grow because I can see the impact that a lot of these organizations can do and partner with other establishments like Feeding Hope. I’m working with Keri (Juarez) to come up with some ideas and things of that nature. Hopefully, working with the Fathers in Action Network for Youth Services of Bryan County and continue groups like that. I really want this program to grow and retain the members and the presence it has in the community.”
Chamber board member Buddy Swicker noted that Metz mentioned the Leadership Durant program that is a program of the Chamber. It is a program designed to give leaders a chance to learn more about their community and leadership.
“We saw this beautiful woman here be a small flower turn into a beautiful bouquet of personality and dimension that is going to be so useful to the community,” Swicker said.
Swicker asked Metz what the chamber could do to help the Turning Point Coalition achieve all of its goals.
“Honestly, just being a part of our meetings,” Metz said. “We meet the second Thursday of every month at 10 a.m. at the Bryan County Health Department. Our meetings are only about an hour long. We also have a Zoom meeting that you can join if you can’t join in person. I found a lot of things are well traveled with word of mouth. We do have a Facebook page. We don’t have an official website, but we do share a lot of stuff on our Facebook. So, check out our Facebook, share all of our ideas … and we can pass along resources because that’s where a lot of things continue to grow. Just making partnerships and reaching out and getting to know everybody and I think that’s the first step to helping the coalition grow and making these partnerships last.”
Donna Murphy, a board member of the Durant Sustainability Coalition, said she admires the Coalition and she thinks it’s important that Turning Point brings together many resources in the community.
“When they work together, they can identify gaps,” Murphy said. “They can fill those gaps. They can share information and so I hope it grows. I hope every organization that’s front-facing and helping people in the community participate because it’s how we get things done.”
Kara Byrd, CEO of the chamber of commerce, spoke of Turning Point’s logo that is a heart-shaped puzzle with one of the pieces missing.
“I was thinking as you were talking, Taylor, about your logo and how the logo is a heart but it has a piece missing and how you guys really work together collaboratively to break down those silos and share those resources across the board and how each person has a piece to play in that puzzle,” Byrd said. “I think Turning Point Coalition is such an incredible organization in our community that’s working to break down those barriers of those silos, and so I just applaud you guys. We’re grateful to be a part of your network now and help you guys get out your information and the resources that you have to those that need it most.”
