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2015 In Review
I am proud to share this edition of our quarterly e-Link that recaps some of our major accomplishments and initiatives in the areas of Protective Services, Workforce Development, Child Support Enforcement, and Community Services. Please share this newsletter with anyone who might have an interest in Job and Family Services and what we are doing to meet the needs of our community.
Thank you,
Aundrea Cordle
Fairfield County Job and Family Services Director
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Innovations and Efficiency Grant Brings Enhanced Visitation Services to Families of Fairfield County
In 2015, Fairfield County Protective Services received specialized funding to improve outcomes for children in agency custody through parent education and visitation services. This funding allowed us to make practice changes that promote an innovative approach to child welfare visitation between children and parents, designed to improve outcomes and
reduce time to achieve reunification and permanency
. Visitation is provided as a case service that requires specialized staff with dedicated visitation caseloads, and provides the opportunity to plan quality visits with increased frequency and the ability to incorporate parent education services when warranted.
Fairfield County Protective Services was able to deliver parent education services for eligible families and increase visit opportunities for all children in agency custody by 50%. Efforts to provide visits in a community based setting (e.g., foster home, parent home, park etc.) are now becoming more common, when possible. These practices allow for the agency to efficiently plan visits that meet the needs of families and children and maintain connections when children are placed away from home. Parents also have the ability to demonstrate and try new skills, an often overlooked practice. Children and families experience less trauma related to separation and placement in agency custody.
Positive changes are detailed below:
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Community Services Department and Community Partners Help Families in 2015
The Community Services Department, with the help of state funding and community partners, was able to assist hundreds of low income families with school clothes, school supplies, winter coats, car repair, heating assistance, household appliances, and rental assistance in 2015.
Highlights include:
- The distribution of 290 children and adult winter coats with a $1,000 grant from WalMart and state funding.
- 595 children received assistance for school clothes or school supplies.
- 200 Elementary and 400 Junior High/High School supply kits were distributed through Fairfield 2-1-1, Charity Newsies, St. Vincent de Paul, and Community Services at Fairfield County Job and Family Services.
- 745 households were provided heating assistance.
- 108 households received help with refrigerators or stoves.
- 143 families received assistance with rent or rent deposits.
- 43 working families received assistance for car repair.
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As we reflect on the 2015 holiday season, we can't help but smile. We are so grateful for the community support we received during the Fairfield County Job & Family Services Holiday Donation Drive. With your support and generous donations, we were able to fulfill over 400 wish lists for the children of Fairfield County.
Your partnership and sense of community spirit during the 2015 holiday season is an inspiration to our staff as we strive for child safety and family stability in Fairfield County. The donations of your gifts and your time have touched the lives and hearts of so many. Once again, we sincerely thank you.
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Child Support Enforcement Grant Grows
The Parenting Time Opportunities for Children (PTOC) grant is a pilot program to give child support agencies the opportunity to develop, implement, and evaluate procedures to establish parenting time orders (visitation) along with new child support orders. The grant's mission is to learn more about how the Child Support Enforcement Agency can safely and effectively give families opportunities to establish parenting time orders, thereby improving the child's overall well-being. Ohio is one of five states approved in 2015 that participate. Cuyahoga, Pickaway, Montgomery, Licking and Franklin counties were approved to begin providing services to customers as well. Wayne and Stark counties began PTOC services in January of 2016. Montgomery County ran a very successful ad campaign in 2015, that included signage and audio messaging on the local RTA bus system. For a 2 month period they had 50 interior signs in buses throughout the Dayton area. In addition, there were four large exterior signs serving as rolling billboards which were located on the bus stop side of buses. Thanks in part to this effort we currently have established 95 parenting time orders! The grant program will run through September, 2017, however services will be able to continue past the grant period, if the costs involved are minimal and incidental to the establishment of a child support order. The model Ohio is using was designed to be able to last past the grant period, allowing us to continue program services. These include: implementation of domestic violence plans, informing parents about parenting time order options and the connection to child support, incorporating agreed upon parenting time orders into an existing support action, and referring parents to self-help or other legal services resources for assistance modifying or enforcing parenting time orders.
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Food Assistance Program
Helps Children and Elderly
In 2015, approximately 8
,538 h
ouseholds were in receipt of Food Assistance benefits in Fairfield County. Of those, 52% of Food Assistance recipients were either children or seniors aged 60 and over. Known nationally as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), food assistance helps low-income residents stretch their food budgets and buy healthy food. The Food Assistance program eligibility is based on gross income and household members and the average issuance per person is $122.00 per month. Benefits are loaded electronically onto the Direction Card each month.
You can apply for Food Assistance online at
www.odjfsbenefits.ohio.gov
or by completing an application and submitting to the Community Services Department at Fairfield County Job and Family Services.
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Child Abuse Prevention Month Kickoff Breakfast:
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
8:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.
EMA Conference Room
(located on the first floor of the Government Services Building)
on
Wednesday, April 13
to support Child Abuse Prevention
Circus Night:
Thursday, April 21, 2016 from 5:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. in the parking lot of the Government Services Building
Candlelight Walk:
Thursday,
April 21, 2016, beginning
at 6:30 p.m. The Walk begins in the parking lot of the Government Services Building and will end at the Zane Square Gazebo.
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JFS Finance Flash
The Fairfield County Job and Family Services Finance team has continued to work with our local businesses, agencies, and non-profit organizations by monitoring and controlling 72 contracts worth $4.5 million dollars in services. The Finance team has also monitored six grants totaling over $1.1 million dollars and processed over 7,400 invoices in 2015.
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Did You Realize?
Protective Services continues to work toward creating trauma informed caseworkers, supervisors, managers, kinship caregivers, and foster and adoptive parents. In addition to seeking specialized training and enhancing clinical supervision, Protective Services is also providing weekly trauma tips to staff and kinship, foster, and adoptive parents with useful information for working with traumatized children.
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Support Child Abuse Prevention on Facebook by liking "Child Abuse Prevention Month Fairfield County JFS"
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No Children in Planned Permanent Living Arrangement Status
Fairfield County Protective Services is dedicated to achieving legal permanency for children. Legal permanence can be defined as children reunifying with their family, entering into the legal custody of kin, being adopted, or having an adult adoption. Over the years, many youth were placed in the legal status of Planned Permanent Living Arrangement (PPLA), which typically left an adolescent without legal permanency and led to youth emancipating from foster care without solid family connections.
We are thrilled to share the news there are no Fairfield County youth in agency custody with a legal status of PPLA! Every effort is being made to assure all children and youth have meaningful, legally permanent relationships, when agency custody ends.
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Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA)
President Barack Obama signed the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) into law on July 22, 2014. WIOA is designed to help job seekers access employment, education, training, and support services to succeed in the labor market and to match employers with the skilled workers they need to compete in the global economy. Congress passed the Act by a wide bipartisan majority; it is the first legislative reform in 15 years of the public workforce system.
WIOA supersedes the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 and amends the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act, the Wagner-Peyser Act, and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. In general, the Act took effect on July 1, 2015, the first full program year after enactment, though many aspects will be implemented in 2016.
One of the most significant changes with this legislation is that the focus of the youth programming is now largely on "out-of-school youth". Prior to WIOA, 30% of youth customers were required to be out-of-school. Starting on July 1, 2015, 75% of the youth customers are required to be out-of-school. During the previous program year in Fairfield County, a total of 182 youth participated in youth programs (including the Summer Youth Program). Fifty-nine of these youth (or 32%) were out-of-school youth. Workforce Development Officials are working with local youth program providers to recruit this target demographic and are on pace to meet this new requirement.
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Fairfield County Job and Family Services
(740) 652-7889
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