If you are a public assistance recipient and need to get verification documents to us, you can visit any branch of the library and fax them in, rather than make the trip downtown. We are extremely grateful to our partner for helping us with this service.

The weather has been particularly dreary lately.  Some might not want to make the trip downtown in the rain. This is a great alternative!

Among the most common calls we receive at our agency are from parents attempting to check the status of child support payments. I am happy to announce we now have a way for everyone to check their status online.

The state of Ohio has launched a new Web portal for custodial and non-custodial parents to access child support case information, payment history, payment status and more.

This is great. Not only will it provide the consumer the information they need at the click of a mouse, it will take pressure off our busy phone lines and caseworkers. It is a win-win!

Here’s the link:

https://childsupport.ohio.gov/childsupportsplash.jsf

We started this program because of a need. We saw our foster children struggling to graduate high school and move on to successful higher learning opportunities. Nationally, only 3 percent of foster children earn college degrees. Our numbers were similar. They were aging out with nowhere to go. They have much higher rates of homelessness, incarceration and other social problems than non-foster children.

Rarely, if ever, is a conversation even had with these children that higher education is an option. Furthermore, if higher education is discussed with them, it often seems daunting or unattainable due to the unawareness of financial resources and assistance available to them.

 The purpose of this community partnership is to provide foster youth with a long-term mentoring relationship that begins in high school and is focused on the awareness of, and preparation for, post-secondary education and training.

The program goal is to reduce the number of foster youth who drop out of high school; increase the number who apply to and pursue higher education; and set foster youth on a path to successful careers and sustainable income.

With the great partnership we have with the University of Cincinnati’s Partnership for Achieving School Success (PASS), Cincinnati State Technical and Community College, Great Oaks Institute of Technology and Career Development and the Hamilton County Board of Commission, this has turned into a wonderful program. Since its start, 100 percent of the students have graduated high school! We served 37 students last year and most are pursuing higher education at schools such as UC, Cincinnati State, Great Oaks, the College of Mt. Saint Joseph and The Ohio State University

There is some commitment to being a mentor. You’ll commit to a six-hour training course and spending two hours a week with your mentee through high school graduation and on through their pursuit of post-secondary education.

To be considered for the mentor program, participants must fill out an application, undergo a background check and complete an interview process. This includes providing a copy of a valid drivers’ license and proof of insurance.

To obtain an application and for more information, contact Annie Schellinger, UC HEMI Program Coordinator, at 513-556-4368, or e-mail annie.schellinger@uc.edu 

The true success of this program is with the relationships. We have had some tremendous mentor/mentee relationships. In fact, the relationship often blossoms into a true friendship. That makes this program better than we could have ever expected, because these children end up with life-long mentors!

We always say that we cannot do this job effectively without community support and this is a perfect example of partnering with another community entity to benefit Hamilton County’s children.

To be featured on a broadcast, the delinquent parent will have a warrant out for their arrest because of overdue money and will typically have been considered in contempt of court because they failed to show up for a court hearing.

The reports will air at 5:30 p.m. Wednesdays. Please look for them.

In this economy, it is more important than ever that children receive support to meet their basic needs, such as food, shelter and clothing. If you know the location of parent who is not paying child support, please call (513) 946-5350.

We promised we would get better and we have. I am happy to report our we processed two-thirds of our food stamp applications in a timely manner during the last week of December. That number would have been even higher if we had not held on to some cases for a lengthy period of time hoping for consumers to get in the required verifications.

We still have a ways to go. The recession and its resulting budget cuts created a condition where we were serving an exploding caseload with fewer people. But we have since hired more employees, shifted others to this critical area and made technological and process improvements that have us on the right track.

We appreciate your patience with us. We will continue to work hard on your behalf.

We received more than 7,000 toys from the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves’ Toys for Tots program. What an amazing organization! I cannot thank them enough for their support of our children. Next year, if you are looking for a group to support during the holidays, please consider this organization because they help so many in our community.

Many others rallied for our children, too. I hesitate to name them because I may leave someone out, but I will try to capture as many as possible: Fifth Third Bank, Xerox, Bellarmine Chapel, Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center, Our Lady of the Rosary Church in Green Hills, TransAmerica, Warriors for Children, Hamilton County administration, Siemans and several individuals.

Because of you, many children had a brighter holiday. Thank you!

 The child welfare system in this region has great cooperation and great partnerships. I treasure the workign relationships we have with so many in this community, including Juvenile Court, Pro Kids and the Guardian Ad Litem unit of the Public Defender’s Office. We also work very well with schools, hospitals, churches and providers. 

Do we have our challenges? Yes. But we are always working toward a fail-safe system. There is never closure when a child dies. There are always lessons to be learned and improvements. The goal never waivers – safety for every child. Just as Attorney General Dewine stipulated in the Safe Families Act of 1997.

Reflecting on the past year with a colleague, I asked that question. I believe our agency’s 2011 “story” had many good chapters, and some challenging ones, too. In the end, our story was similar to one we tell every year – a story of helping this community in its time of need.

Certainly the chapter that gained the most attention occurred toward the end, with the tragic death of Damarcus Jackson.  Anytime we have a case that ends so tragically, we take it as an opportunity to examine our actions, policies and procedures in search of ways to get better at protecting Hamilton County’s most vulnerable children. I promise you we are doing that. The most difficult decisions we ever make as a child welfare agency are on removing, placing or returning a child in a home, and we take that responsibility very seriously. We will continue to do everything to be better at attaining our number one goal of safety.

The passage of the Children’s Services Levy by a record 71 percent in the wake of Damarcus’ death was a message from the community: “we believe in the work you do and we want you to have the resources you need to do it.” That was a shot of confidence when we really needed it. Thank you to all who support us!

And I choose to believe good news like that is more indicative of this agency’s 2011 story. This was the year when our Children’s Services division received expedited accreditation from a national group, the Council on Accreditation, because we were in compliance in every area it evaluated. That seal of approval sends the message to our community that we are performing on par with the best child welfare organizations in the country.

This was also the year we piloted the state’s conversion to a new child care payment system.  The largest county to go online with a swipe-card system, we helped the state understand the nuances and navigate the pitfalls before introducing it to other Ohio communities. This was a major undertaking and I am proud of our Child Care staff members who worked so diligently at ensuring Hamilton County shined throughout the entire process.

We were also the best large county in the state when it came to Work Participation rates among our public assistance recipients.  We still have work to do in this area, but we appreciated the state asking us to share our methods with other counties to assist them in boosting their rates.

In 2011, we launched new efforts, such as our “Do Ask, Do Tell” campaign aimed at getting mandated reporters such as teachers, police officers and child care workers to report suspected child abuse so we can intervene as early as possible. Other new projects sought to improve financial literacy among our child support population and to enhance our efforts around finding permanent, positive outcomes for children in foster care.

Yes, we had our challenges. The economy has left far too many Hamilton County residents struggling, and when those record numbers turned to us for help, too many had to wait too long. We have spent much of the past three months engaged in an effort to be better prepared to provide them the relief they need as soon as possible.

And in the same year we held our first public Internet chat to solicit tips on public assistance fraud from our community members, we had the unfortunate situation of three former employees being arrested for suspicion of fraudulently supplying friends and family members with public assistance. Of course, we have absolutely zero tolerance for this type of behavior from our employees or this community and will do all we can to root out any fraud in our public assistance programs.

But our challenges are only chapters in our book. The positive chapters far outweigh the negative ones, and the story of Hamilton County’s Department of Job and Family Services in 2011 is one of hard work, determination and innovation. This is an agency that helped hundreds of thousands of Hamilton County residents by protecting children and the elderly, collecting child support for children and providing food, medical assistance, child care and job services to those who needed a helping hand.

In 2011, we helped many of your neighbors on their way to a better tomorrow. That is our story.

ATTENTION: Monday, Nov. 21st at 8:30 a.m. through Tuesday, Nov. 22 at noon, our 946-1076 fax line malfunctioned. As a result, faxes sent to that number during that time may not have been properly received.

 The problem has now been fixed. Unfortunately, if you sent a fax to us during this time, we ask you to either re-send your documents by fax to that number, mail them to us at 222 East Central Parkway, or drop them in the drop box located on the outside of 222 E. Central Parkway building.

We sincerely apologize for this inconvenience and will make every effort to assist consumers that sent documents during that time. Please know this malfunction will not affect your eligibility determination.

This tragedy has reverberated through our building. When a child in our care dies, we take it very personally. Even more than that, several here had come to know Damarcus, and his loss has left them with heavy hearts.

I assure you we, as much as anyone, want to get answers to those questions. We welcome a system-wide examination of the decision making surrounding this young boy’s case. We also welcome the opportunity to educate the public about the child welfare system.

It is difficult to explain to the public how complicated child welfare cases can be. They are a constant balance between the safety of the child and the right of the parents to parent. Careful thought goes into the difficult decision to remove a child or reunify a family and many people from many different entities play a part in that decision. There is never a simple solution to any family’s problem, but instead a host of options and often more than one is needed to truly help. Ultimately, each case requires a human decision based on predicting human behavior.

What we do know is safety is the absolute, number one concern. If we do not feel a child can be safely returned to their parent’s home, we do not reunify. But we also know foster care was never meant to be a permanent solution and children want the bond of family in their lives. Most children will do better with their parents than in the foster care system if we can just supply the support needed for the family to thrive.

Most children want to be with their mom and dad. I can tell you of dozens of children who have remained in the foster care system for most of their lives but, as soon as they turned 18, went right back to mom and dad.

We are constantly faced with incredibly difficult decisions when it comes to abused and neglected children. Should a drug addict permanently lose the right to parent their children? Will someone who has abused their child once, do it repeatedly, even after counseling and other services to help them control their anger and become better parents? Is a child better off in foster care than with a struggling parent?

Here at JFS, caseworkers undergo extensive training to help them make that decision. They use risk and safety-assessment tools to determine the risk to children and the parents’ capacity to protect their children. They work in tandem with other professionals charged with treating and evaluating the family.

The reunification decision is not made in a vacuum. What is good about Hamilton County’s system is that we have many eyes and ears on the family as they go through this process. Not only does JFS play a part in this decision, but so do court advocates for the children, providers, foster parents and the independent magistrate who actually makes the ultimate determination.

Unfortunately, this is a process that involves human judgment and relies on predicting human behavior. Sometimes, we, and those who work with us, make mistakes. Other times, we do everything right and the outcome is still tragic.

When that occurs, I can assure you it affects us here. I have consoled more than one crying caseworker who has lost a child they’ve grown to love. We also take it seriously. We investigate very death or serious injury, searching for missed red flags and policies and procedures that might be changed. If there is something to learn, we want to make sure we bring it to the forefront.

We will do the same with Damarcus’ death. We have also called for an independent system-wide investigation to determine if there are any system improvements that might come from this tragedy.

We help 16,000 children a year. That is one of every 13 Hamilton County children. If there is anything that can be learned from this tragedy, we owe it to each one of those children to make sure we do everything possible to keep them safe.

Five years ago, in the wake of Marcus Fiesel’s tragic death, this community debated the safety of foster homes. Now, we discuss whether a child would not have been safer in a foster home than with his own parents.

For those in child welfare, the debate plays out daily. Ultimately, after all the training, services, risk-assessment tools, court hearings and more, it comes down to a human judgment that the adult entrusted to care for that child will provide a safe environment.

When that judgment is wrong, it is devastating to us all.