The purpose of this article is to promote, safeguard, and protect the well-being and general welfare of children and youth of this state through a comprehensive and coordinated program of public child welfare and youth services, providing for:
It is the further purpose of this article to provide for a qualified group of citizens and leading professionals who will identify and study the problems of youth, recommend and effect possible solutions, and work actively for state and local action to prevent children and youths from becoming inmates of our prisons, patients in our mental hospitals, and persons dependent upon public assistance programs.
OCGA § 49-5-2