Changing the 'face' of child welfare in Greene County, Ohio.

Greene County Children Services is a large, stand-alone child welfare agency located in Xenia, Ohio. It is a suburb of Dayton and in close proximity to Cincinnati and Columbus. Greene County is home to Wright Patterson Air Force Base and five universities. It has some large, rural areas as well as areas that experience urban issues. Ohio is a state-supervised and county-administered state. As such, county funds are used in different ways to augment state and federal dollars to perform the child welfare function. One option in local financing is to run a property tax levy. In Greene County, the local property tax comprises 42 percent of the agency's budget. The county basically lives and breathes based on its levy revenues. I would like to describe Greene County's journey to make practice more family-centered, the needs of families it serves more clear and public perception more realistic about the "face" of public child welfare while making an attempt to pass an additional tax levy in November 2008.

Over the last decade GCCS has been on a journey to become more family-centered, strength-based and community-focused in its child welfare practices. The agency's work started with becoming a ProtectOhio (IV-E Waiver) county in the late 1990s. That work continues today. During that phase of development, the agency looked at practice processes that enhanced or impeded its ability to serve children in their own homes in an effort to prevent and reduce placements. Examples included enhancing the use of genograms and ecomaps, family team meetings, screening procedures and participating in community-based, wrap-around services. Also during this time, the agency sought its initial COA accreditation and improved its QA and administrative practices. The next phase of development in early 2003 involved being a pilot for Ohio's new system of safety and risk assessment (CAPMIS). This created more opportunities to look at family strengths, protective capacities, community supports and to further hone the earlier ProtectOhio work. The current phase of the agency's family-centered journey involves implementing Ohio's Alternative Response pilot. Just implemented in July 2008, this pilot is affording the agency and its community partners with the opportunity to look differently and more intensely at the entire spectrum of family-centered practices. The agency's message to the community throughout this time has been that it takes everyone to protect children and support families. This has been embraced and the agency has enjoyed tremendous community support, but the public "face" of the agency remained unchanged.

In mid-2007, as federal, state and local revenues started to shrink and the area's unemployment rate increased, it became obvious that Greene County Children Services would need to go to the voters in 2008 to ask for additional taxes to fund increasing service needs. The timing could not have been worse as the state's economy floundered and company after company went out of business. Layoffs became the norm and the once-rich automotive industry dried up. The agency and county leadership felt that public value had been created over the years for its mission but knew the same approach to the levy campaign would not work in this economy. The public needed to see themselves when they thought of the agency and feel hopeful about its outcomes for children and families.

Early in 2008, the agency launched a new look that accomplished just that. Gone were the caricatures that looked like children's drawings. They were replaced with pictures of older youth, kinship families, single dads with kids, single moms with kids and two-parent families that resembled the demographics of the community. The language changed to reflect the inclusion of families and the community and the message turned to "there is hope." The agency ramped up its public relations work to show off the new look and the new message starting in the summer.

By the time the levy campaign started in earnest in September 2008, there was not much need for an expensive, issue-specific campaign. The issue was on the ballot with three other human service issues, but the new look and new message was out there in clear and visible ways. The essence of the levy campaign itself was an issue fact sheet, targeted mailer, limited paid advertisements and copious public speaking engagements reiterating the look and the message. No yard signs, no door-to-door, just a presence that spoke to the community. On Halloween Eve, the agency opened its parking lot to the community for its First Annual Trunk or Treat, Safe Halloween event. Hundreds of children and adults lined up to parade from trunk to trunk in their Halloween finery to grab candy donated by staff and scanned by the Juvenile Court. True to message, participants felt some hope when the news indicated there was none.

Just a few short days later, on Nov. 4, 2008, the agency was successful in passing a replacement levy with additional millage.

Rhonda Reagh, is the executive director of Greene County Children Services in Ohio.