Ohio Children's Trust Fund

Geauga Family First Council helped fund the following programs in FY10 with Ohio Children’s Trust Fund dollars: the Parent Project through Family Pride, Geauga County Educational Service Center, and WomenSafe. Ohio Children’s Trust Fund dollars flow thru Geauga Family First Council from the Ohio Children’s Trust Fund (OCTF) whose mission is to prevent child abuse and neglect through investing in strong communities, healthy families and safe children. Revenues from surcharges on birth and death certificates and divorce and dissolution decrees provide the funding for OCTF. These funds are earmarked for each county through a formula based on the number of children living in that county. In addition, OCTF has been awarded The Community Based Child Abuse Prevention federal grant which is made available for additional prevention programs and special initiatives.  

Each of the three selected agencies were able to do the following with their FY10 OCTF grant:

• Family Pride positively impacted both parents and youth in their fall and spring the Parent Project course and Aftercare Services in FY10. A well-rounded team of professionals teach practical parenting and communication skills thru this core service. The Parent Project also facilitates a research-based teen social skills group focused on asset building, non-violent responses, positive communication with families and peers and overall positive life choices. The youth curriculum is aligned with the core course work being taught to the parents. Children’s Trust Fund dollars funded this youth component.

• The Parent Empowerment Program through the Geauga Educational Service Center focuses on increasing positive communication and building trust between parent and child helping eliminate a huge stressor which can contribute to neglect and/or emotional and physical abuse of the teen. Trust Fund dollars help fund their Teen Parent Network, Parenting 101, and Dear Mom and Dad initiatives which all are part of the Parent Empowerment component – each initiative provides some level of peer support, parent and life skill education and access to community services.

• WomenSafe (Geauga’s domestic violence shelter) continues to serve parents who have children with a multitude of behavior issues in which the parent is unable to appropriately discipline and/or extinguish these negative behaviors. Trust Fund dollars were used to help with the children’s component of the WomenSafe program. 83% of the families served via Children’s Trust Fund money increased their ability to effectively parent their children. The main success of this program has been that none of the parents served via this grant lost custody of their children.

What is the Ohio Children's Trust Fund?
As Ohio's sole, dedicated public funding source for child abuse and neglect prevention, OCTF is in the forefront of prevention activities throughout the state. From establishing guidelines for program development – to accessing up-to-date prevention curricula – to producing educational and public awareness materials – to impacting related social policy initiatives, OCTF provides expertise and resources for legislators, the media, state agencies, and the public.

The Ohio Children's Trust Fund was created in Ohio law in 1984. OCTF funds primary and secondary prevention strategies that are conducted at the local level and activities and projects of a statewide significance designed to strengthen families and prevent child abuse and neglect.

Primary Prevention Strategies are activities and services provided to the public designed to prevent or reduce the prevalence of child abuse and neglect before signs of abuse or neglect can be observed. Primary prevention services are voluntary, targeted to the general public, and include such activities as public awareness materials and events to inform and educate people about child abuse, neglect and the importance of prevention, parenting classes and support groups, child development screening, information and referral services, child safety training and family strengthening activities. Primary prevention services reach the broadest audience and generally have the lowest per person cost.

Secondary Prevention Strategies are activities and services that are provided to a specific population identified as having risk factors for child abuse and neglect and are designed to intervene at the earliest warning signs of child abuse or child neglect, or whenever a child can be identified at being at risk of abuse or neglect. Secondary prevention involves services directed to parents, children and families who have risk factors, but abuse/neglect has not yet been identified. Some types of services (such as parenting classes, parent-child family life education, or parent support groups) can be classified as both primary prevention or secondary prevention. However, because of increased risk for maltreatment, services at the secondary level are typically more comprehensive or intensive than at the primary level. Typical secondary prevention services include home visitation, case management/service coordination, respite care, crisis stabilization and mentoring programs. They target fewer people than primary prevention and are more costly.

For more information on OCTF, please visit their website at http://www.jfs.ohio.gov/OCTF/