2019 sets groundwork for even greater 2020

As we say goodbye to 2019 and look ahead to the new year, I am very excited about what JFS has accomplished and where it is headed.

Last year started off a bit rocky with a partial government shutdown, but our Family and Adult Assistance staff rose to the challenge and set an example the entire agency lived up to throughout the year. We delivered for our consumers time and time again in 2019 and I am extremely proud of our work making this community a better place to live.

We launched new initiatives such as the Kinship Stipend, Project Lift, HC Ignite, First Place for Youth, the Georgetown Project and many more. 2019 showed once again how innovative we will be to ensure families and children in Hamilton County have the resources they need to be successful. Did you know we have won more National Association of County Awards for Innovation than any other government entity in Ohio over the past 12 years?

Our Child Support team helped guide families through the introduction of a new payment card. We created a new Client’s Rights Office to help families navigate our systems. Our Fatherhood Project reached out to numerous fathers in our community to help them understand how our agency can help. Our Child Care team helped hundreds of child care homes and centers convert into the new Step Up to Quality system. Our Community Engagement leader reached out to dozens of faith-based and social-service organizations to let them know how we could help their families. We created a resource guide to help families find the exact type of help they need as quickly as possible.

We helped. We helped. We helped. It seems every sentence contains that phrase.

2019 will go down as the year we introduced our Three Pillars to serve as the foundation of our work for the next decade. Branding, Customer Service and Equity – these are not projects or initiatives, they are now a way of life at JFS. You can count on us to be a more welcoming and helpful community resource in 2020 and beyond.

We look forward to serving you in the new year. For all we accomplished in 2019, we have our sights set higher in 2020. For 72 years, we have been a rock this community leans on during hard times. 2020 will be another year of supporting families and changing lives.

by Jane Prendergast

Filed Under: Featured, From the Director, News

Tagged: Child Support, client's rights, community engagement, fatherhood project, first place for youth, food assistance, georgetown project, hamilton county department of job and family services, hamilton county job and family services, hc ignite, kinship, medicaid, moira weir, Naco, national association of counties, project lift, shutdown, snap, step up to quality, three pillars