child care

HCJFS has hired a senior-level specialist to coordinate and manage the agency’s behavioral health work as the agency attempts to serve more families and children with greater emotional and mental health needs.

Nina Lewis joins the agency after many years of work in the public health field. She will lead the agency’s behavioral health transition to Medicaid managed care for foster children, with a focus on multi-system partnerships, community-based programs and in-home services that strengthen the agency’s behavioral health offering.

In March we take time to honor the social workers at HCJFS who work on the front lines to keep kids safe and families safe and thriving.

Since 2015, Phillippi-Whitney Communications and Sibcy Cline Realtors have teamed up to provide suitcases, gloves and shoes for area foster children.

“This year promises to be even bigger and better as we collect new hoodies and sweatpants for area foster children from ages 5 to 18 with our ‘Sweet Sweats For Love’ campaign,” organizer Julie Whitney said.

How pervasive is heroin? It knows no race, gender or status. It is an equal opportunity destroyer.  CNN tells the story of a Clermont County deputy’s family and how heroin tore it apart. 

Hamilton County’s Board of County Commissioners issued a proclamation Wednesday naming April Child Abuse Prevention and Awareness Month in Hamilton County and April 12 as Wear Blue to Work Day.

The proclamation was issued after commissioners heard from Director Moira Weir on the large increases in Children’s Services caseloads and the many abused and neglected children being served by the agency.

April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month. This year, it comes with an extra sense of urgency in Hamilton County.
Our numbers are skyrocketing. We screened in 732 allegations of child abuse in the month of January, the largest monthly total in at least a decade. We screened in 699 reports during February. This followed a very busy last half of 2016, when we screened in 3,794 reports, 1,101 more than during the first half of the year.

New statistics show that Hamilton County has more than 1,100 children in certified foster care – the most in at least 20 years. Moira Weir, director of Hamilton County Job and Family Services, is calling for help.

We currently have more than 1,100 children in certified foster care. This might be the highest number in JFS history, certainly within the past 20 years.

On any given day, we have more than 2,100 children in custody. In addition to the 1,100 children in certified foster homes, the remaining 1,000 are children living with relatives or family friends, teenagers living on their own and preparing for life after foster care, or children living in residential centers, group homes or medical facilities.

What is the price of peace of mind? Some working parents, unfortunately, can’t afford it. We help. Nearly 25,000 Hamilton County children received child care assistance from our agency last year. These are children whose parents have annual incomes below …

Two HCJFS employees were among seven honored on Fountain Square Thursday as County Heroes.