Eckerd Candor's short-term residential services in Montgomery County is forming a community advisory council to provide a critical link between the Eckerd program and the greater surrounding community.

Comprised of community members devoted to making a difference in the lives of children and families, this volunteer position requires a one year commitment, attendance at quarterly meetings, and participation with community relations and fundraising/friend-raising projects, a news release said. Meetings are held quarterly its campus in Candor.

Eckerd is one of the nation's leading providers of services for at-risk youth and their families. Eckerd has already made an impact on the lives of more than 120,000 boys and girls through a full-continuum of life-changing child welfare and behavioral health programs, the news release said.

Founded by Jack and Ruth Eckerd in 1968, Eckerd operates more than 30 diverse programs in six states, all which are giving much-needed second chances to children and families, according to the news release. It has served youth and families in North Carolina for more than 30 years.

Locally, it helps youth succeed through Eckerd short-term residential services, which are designed to help young people by combining promising and evidence-based practices with a strong family transition component, the release said. Its youth work through individualized service and academic plans that combine formal and experiential education, vocational education, community service, behavioral health and family counseling in a no-punitive environment designed to address the youth's behavioral challenges through a strengths-based approach.

Anyone interested in serving on the community advisory council is asked to contact Eckerd Candor facility director Jesse B. Tall at jtall@eckerd.org or (910) 975-1540) tchance. To learn more about Eckerd, visit its website at www.eckerd.org.