Congratulations to BCSD's own Ola Scott- Little, who has been selected as School Social Worker of the Year for District 10 by the Georgia School Social Worker Association. District 10 comprises 18 counties in Georgia. Mrs. Ola Scott-Little will go on to compete for the statewide title with other school social workers throughout the state in March.
"I was called to do this job," said Scott-Little, "we serve as advocates for home, school, and community, and work to decrease those barriers that would interrupt a child's education, and that's a big job for us." Scott-Little is the only social worker serving the Baldwin County School District.
She has been instrumental in helping individual students achieve success within the Baldwin County School System. "Eight years ago, when Dr. (Noris) Price came, the graduation rate was 66.6 percent. She sent me out to these different homes to look for these children. It was well over 300 or 400 students that we had to locate, and a real community effort to go out and visit them at home. We were able to get some of these students to return back to school or to enroll in an educational program, which increased our graduation rate to 90% pre-pandemic," stated Scott-Little.
Scott-Little said that it feels amazing to be recognized for the work she's been doing. She regularly serves as a mentor to other social workers within District 10, and often the work is arduous and difficult because there is such a shortage of social workers in Georgia. "Sometimes you feel like you're on the back burner," said Scott-Little, "but I'm grateful because not only does my local District recognize me, but my peers in District 10 School Social Workers Association recognize the work that I'm doing here in Baldwin County."