Lucas County Children Services is recognized as a national leader in many aspects of child protection. This coming July, we will be taking our story to a national stage to discuss the ways that we’ve combined three of our strengths – family search and engagement, family support, and grant-writing – to secure funding through the OneOhio opioid settlement to pay for programs that generate meaningful family connections for youth and programs that help families get clean.
Family Search and Engagement Supervisor Melissa McCartt will be joined by Area Office on Aging’s (AOoA) Arcelia Armstrong and Marsha Rose to present, “Securing Opioid Settlement Funds: Strategies to Support Grandfamilies” at the national USAging Conference July 19 in San Diego. They will discuss their experiences in securing more than $463,000 from the nationwide opioid settlements with the OneOhio Recovery Foundation, a non-profit, charitable organization created by Ohio’s state and local leaders to distribute 55 percent of the funds Ohio is receiving from the pharmaceutical industry as a consequence of its role in the national opioid epidemic.
LCCS is using the opioid settlement funds to add search and engagement workers to identify the kin of youth in care and then provide AOoA with funding to “wrap” the family with services and resources to help them care for the children. OneOhio is also contributing funds to OhioSTART, to help parents achieve sobriety while helping children heal from trauma associated with substance abuse.
“This has been a transformative use of OneOhio funding,” says Melissa. “We have a ‘kin-first’ culture. The results bear that out.”
The agency is coming to the end of the initial two-year grant and is awaiting word on a possible one-year extension. Keep your fingers crossed!
The 51st annual USAging conference and trade show is the country’s largest gathering of local leaders in aging well at home. Congratulations to Melissa for the recognition she brings to LCCS on the national level.