Community leaders are looking at Beaufort County from a holistic point of view.

Over the past four years, groups have worked on improving the overall wellbeing of Beaufort County citizens and discussed how to best make it happen.

Organized under the name Beaufort County 360, the groups are made up of organizations and government entities, divided into task forces focusing on literacy, health and family strengthening.

Among the partners are: Beaufort County Public Health Department, Beaufort County Schools, United Way, Beaufort-Hyde Partnership for Children and Vidant Beaufort Hospital, to name several.

“It’s a great collaborative effort, between multiple organizations and agencies, striving to make a difference in Beaufort County together,” said JaNell Lewis, human services planner and preparedness coordinator at the health department.

Task forces are charged with many roles, including improving community partnerships, enhancing the effectiveness of service providers, building awareness about school readiness, promoting services and gaining more support for programs, according to information provided by Maudia Ahmad, BC 360 implementation coach.

The idea began after Beaufort County was one of five other counties awarded Race to the Top grant money in 2012, which focused on early childhood services in rural, Tier 1 counties. Ahmad said grant recipients were required to form leadership and implementation committees to assess the state of early childhood development in their respective counties.

Upon further discussion, however, the group of community leaders decided to expand the initiative to include other aspects, she said.

“We’re looking at everyone on the spectrum,” Ahmad said. “The task forces have made tremendous progress in some areas.”

She said there is still a large emphasis on early childhood issues, but BC 360 tries to look at every age within the county’s population and view situations from a “broader scope.”

Each task force is in the process of collecting data, but with ample communication between the groups, Ahmad said she hopes to see the results continue to grow.

She said BC 360 is always open to new partners or supporters in its overall goal to improve the quality of life for Beaufort County citizens.