The domestic assault charge for the program manager of Hamilton County’s Center for Thriving Families has been dismissed.
Derienne Simone Busby, 31, was charged and arrested in early February after police accused her of shoving and hitting her ex-girlfriend, according to an arrest report. The report claimed she also pushed her ex-girlfriend’s son into a trash can.
Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp introduced the Center for Thriving Families as a key initiative in his 2024 State of the County address. It aggregates resources for career development and food, housing, parental and legal support for families in need.
The three-person team, which is 18 months in, has yet to hit several strategic goals, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reported. It was created by defunding the decades-old Read 20 literacy program, which handed out books to every child in all 43 Hamilton County elementary schools several times over and had a long history of improving literacy rates in the county, program coordinators said.