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Charlotte County names Amanda Lee social services director; agency profile shows high benefit reliance
Summary
Amanda Lee, a Charlotte County native with 13 years in social services, has been hired as county director. At the meeting she summarized a county agency profile showing a high local poverty rate and large portion of residents receiving benefits.
Amanda Lee, effective April 1, has been hired as director of Charlotte County Social Services, the board heard during the county’s April meeting.
Lee told the board she is a Charlotte County native and has 13 years of experience with social services in the county, including prior roles as administrative analyst and Community Services Act (CSA) coordinator. She said she plans outreach and other locally focused programs.
Lee and staff distributed an agency profile that compares Charlotte County metrics with regional and statewide benchmarks. Highlights presented in the meeting include:
- County total population cited as 11,336 (profile source dated 2022). - Poverty rate: 18% of residents; county rate exceeds the Piedmont regional figure (13%) and the statewide rate (10%). - Children under 18 in poverty: 25% (profile, 2022). - Unemployment cited at about 3.5% (compared to 3.1% Piedmont, 2.9% statewide). - Benefits recipients: 5,264 residents received benefits in fiscal year 2024 (scope includes SNAP, TANF, Medicaid) — described in the presentation as roughly 47% of the county population (non-duplicated count per the report). - Family-services and child-welfare counts presented: 3 children in foster care, 5 children exited to adoption, 25 children receiving adoption assistance, and 205 Child Protective Services referrals; adults receiving adult protective services cases were listed as 69. - Social services spending: the profile cited total statewide/local services spending of about $54,000,000 with Charlotte County’s local share in the cited fiscal year listed at $707,000, or roughly 1.3% of the total shown; staff characterized that local funding is a small portion of the overall service dollars. - Staffing: the office was reported as fully staffed at 25 positions at the time the report was compiled.
Lee said the report is intended to give the board and the community context for service needs and resource allocation; she invited supervisors to contact her office for additional detail.
Board members praised Lee’s prior work on CSA and welcomed her to the director role.
