Coordinating Child Abuse Prevention in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Ohio

Research shows the most common factor for children who develop resilience is at least one stable and committed relationship with a supportive parent, caregiver, or other adult. Children who do well in the face of serious hardship typically have a biological resistance to adversity and strong relationships with the important adults in their family and community.

In 1998, the landmark Adverse Childhood Experiences study found that adverse childhood experiences, such as abuse, were directly linked to negative outcomes later in life, including a higher risk for chronic diseases, substance abuse, teen pregnancy and juvenile delinquency.

Thus, children and the adults in their lives – parents, family members, caregivers, and educators – need access to resources that strengthen families and family-serving systems and prevent child abuse and neglect before it happens to make child resiliency a real possibility.

That’s exactly what an expanding partnership between the Ohio Children’s Trust Fund and The Center for Family Safety and Healing at Nationwide Children’s Hospital is doing to help improve the wellbeing of children and their families in central, eastern and southeastern Ohio.

The Ohio Children’s Trust Fund is the state's sole dedicated public funding source for child abuse and neglect prevention. Most of its funding is funneled through eight Regional Prevention Councils to support local child abuse and neglect prevention programs and services.

For over four years, The Center for Family Safety and Healing has coordinated the Central Ohio Regional Prevention Council, which partners with local providers across the region. In 2021, the center was competitively selected by the Ohio Children’s Trust Fund to coordinate the councils for the eastern and southeast regions as well. The three regions represent 36 counties in all.

“We were interested in being a part of these prevention efforts – first, because we're a regional hospital and are invested in the wellbeing of children and their families across these regions, and second, so we could develop deeper relationships with partners across these counties,” said Kayla Zimpfer, the center’s Child Abuse Prevention Manager.

Each of the regional councils funds region-specific prevention strategies through Ohio Children’s Trust Fund grants. The Central Ohio Regional Prevention Council’s strategy focuses on parent education for vulnerable families through the Positive Parenting Program (Triple P), with a robust evaluation determining the impact that Triple P has on caregiver outcomes.

The Eastern and Southeastern councils have launched two main strategies. The first provides educational and supportive programming to parents and caregivers, such as Parent Cafés and Parenting Wisely, while the second promotes positive social and emotional development through peer support and mentoring services for children and youth.

These strategies are executed by partner organizations in the regions like Big Brothers, Big Sisters, Syntero and the Survivor Advocacy Outreach Program. The Ohio Children’s Trust Fund grants also empower the regional councils to tailor funding to meet needs that are specific to their local communities.

“The grant allowed for some discretionary funding for services and incentives to make it easier for families to participate in some of the programs,” said Jeffrey Felton, the chair of the Eastern Ohio Regional Prevention Council. Felton said this enables the council to serve higher-risk families.

Travis West, the chair of the Southeast Ohio Regional Prevention Council, said many agencies in his region are limited in their ability to provide prevention programming because staff are addressing the immediate care and safety of the children in their county.

“For the social service agencies in these counties, the fact that these programs are accessible to their clientele has a huge impact,” he said.

In addition to the work being done by the Regional Prevention Councils, The Center for Family Safety and Healing is also able to fund child abuse prevention training in the central Ohio region through the Ohio Children’s Trust Fund Advocacy Center Primary Prevention grant. This grant has enabled the center to train 25 people to become authorized facilitators of a child abuse prevention training called Stewards of Children® through Darkness to Light, a non-profit that empowers adults to prevent child sexual abuse.

Stewards of Children is a two-hour evidence-informed program to train adults to respond responsibly to child sexual abuse. The program also equips trainees to create organizational policies and procedures that prevent future child sexual abuse.

“We heard from members of Child Advocacy Centers that there were many barriers to bringing Darkness to Light to their communities, including the cost of the faciliator training,” said Caitlin Tully, training supervisor with The Center for Family Safety and Healing. “The grant helps remove those barriers.”

After completing an eight-hour “train the trainer” course, the Darkness to Light-authorized facilitators can lead the two-hour Stewards of Children training in their communities. The grant funding will also provide the materials for training for 2,275 parents, caregivers and professionals across central Ohio.

“Children who experienced child sexual abuse are at higher risk for things like teen pregnancy and lower higher education attainment, which has an impact on population health,” said Tully. “The earlier we intervene, the more we see significant increases in the health of communities.”