News from Franklin County Children Services

With tutoring and educational supports specifically designed to help young people in a foster or kinship situation - and for youth simply connected to the child welfare system because of struggles with their parents - Franklin County Children Services is helping to prevent young learners from missing school or sliding in grades during transitions in their home placement. Called the Educational Partnership for Social Emotional and Academics (EPSEA), FCCS works with the Education Service Center of Central Ohio to provide hands-on counseling and resources to children and teenagers in the agency’s care. And with a priority from FCCS on protecting the “whole” child - body, mind, and heart - this partnership on education is reversing past trends that show how foster youth typically struggle with school and often fail to reach graduation due to the social and emotional needs they often have, said Erica James, the EPSEA coordinator. “EPSEA provided a real shift of focus on the social, emotiona...

As a recognized leader in innovation in Ohio’s child welfare efforts, Franklin County Children Services is at the forefront of a new partnership to more quickly and efficiently receive reports of child abuse or neglect from teachers, nurses, and child care providers. The TEAM Ohio portal - short for Taking Early Action Matters - is an advanced online reporting system for mandated reporters who are required by law to report suspected instances of abuse and neglect, according to FCCS Screening Supervisor Erica Davis. Still in the pilot phase, FCCS is partnering with the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services as well as child service agencies in Fairfield, Stark, and Summit counties to test the online portal which collects information that screening decision makers need to investigate cases of suspected abuse. "The portal is really easy to use and provides a lot of information which is critical for us to know," Ms. Davis said. Also partnering in this pilot effort are referra...

For 21-year-old India, a mentor is “someone you can always talk to, almost like a big sister, and lean on when you need help.” She’s been able to rely on Allison Milliken, her College-Bound mentor connected to her through Franklin County Children Service, for sound advice and unconditional support over the past three years.  FCCS College-Bound mentors are matched one-on-one with teenagers in the agency’s care to provide positive influences and help guide and support these older youth as they pursue post-high school education, develop career goals, and make life decisions. As part of the agency’s strategy to protect the “whole” child - mind, body, and heart - FCCS recruits caring adults who can build heartfelt, trusting relationships with youth through its Volunteers and Mentors Program.  January’s National Mentoring Month is a time to honor those committed, caring adults who remind young people that they have someone in their corner. As India finishes a human resource and busi...

As a volunteer in Franklin County Children Services’ Crisis Center, Michalle DiGiovine fondly recalls dining on “pretend food” and playing “restaurant” with a promising culinary staff of five young children as they tried out recipes prepared on a plastic range.  “It felt good that they could come to me - a stranger - to pretend and laugh a little,” she said, remembering how she connected with the youngsters, all the under the age of 10, who had just endured an extremely traumatic experience at home. As January is National Mentoring Month, it’s a great time to recognize the Crisis Center volunteers who help protect children by allowing them to escape from tumultuous situations for a time and feel safe and cared for.  Mentors and volunteers play an important role at FCCS in surrounding children who come into the agency’s care with kindness and support, letting children know they are not alone. It’s part of the agency’s strategy to protect the “whole” child - mind, body, and hear...

The National Partnership for Child Safety (NPCS), a quality improvement collaborative with a mission to improve child safety and prevent child maltreatment fatalities, provided its year end update on partnership activities related to strengthening families and promoting safety science and innovations in child welfare. The NPCS currently includes the participation of 38 state, county and tribal child and family-serving child welfare jurisdictions - including Franklin County Children Services - who are assessing and applying safety science principles in their agencies.  The growth of the partnership now reflects a footprint of public child welfare agencies that represent nearly 70% of families involved with the child welfare system nationally. Jurisdictions new to the partnership over the past year include: The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services; the Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services; the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services; the Washoe County (NV) H...

Rebecca Kern felt called to mentoring because she wanted to give back. Little did she know that she would be getting so much more in return.  Ms. Kern, a business consultant who lives in Grandview, is part of the Friendship Mentor Program at Franklin County Children Services, which currently has 229 mentor volunteers and is actively recruiting more caring, committed adults to enrich the hearts and minds of youth involved in the child welfare system. In celebration of National Mentoring Month this January, we interviewed Ms. Kern about why she volunteers as a mentor. After nearly five years of being friends with her mentee Janelle, who’s almost 13, Ms. Kern simply can’t imagine not being in her unofficial little sister’s life.  “People go into this selfishly, thinking that they’re going to make a difference, but it’s the other way around,” she says. “I’ve learned a lot more from her than she’s learned from me.”  The two immediately hit it off when they first met in 2019. “...

As part of Franklin County Children Services’ efforts to strengthen all families - even those who might not be directly connected to the agency - foster and adoptive families throughout Central Ohio will soon have access to a new, trend-setting "parent coach" support. "Family structures have changed so much, and the challenges families face are far different than a couple of years ago before any of us used words like pandemic or COVID,” said FCCS Executive Director Chip Spinning. “Then you add the mental health crisis faced by so many of our young people, the stressors of violence in our communities, and the uncertainties of our economy. It’s a lot, and no family can overcome it alone… and neither can one agency be expected to solve it all alone.” The Central Ohio Regional Training Center (CORTC), which is housed inside FCCS, was provided a grant from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services to enlist the highly respected coaching skills of Nick Mastin, who brings ...