FREMONT — To bring awareness to the number of children served in 2021 by Sandusky County's Job and Family Services department, staff members and Fremont Ross High School students planted pinwheels Friday outside JFS' Countryside Drive office.
The blue pinwheels are normally planted in the ground every April in support of National Child Abuse Prevention Month. Jessica Murphy, program and placement unit supervisor with Sandusky County Children Services, said the agency had not done the pinwheels the last two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Murphy said each pinwheel placed in the ground Friday represented 10 children served by her agency in 2021. The number of children involved in JFS investigations during 2021 was 730, up from 677 in 2020.
Murphy said staff members will wear blue April 13 as part of the month's events.
The Sandusky County Department of Job and Family Services announced in January that Sandusky, Seneca and Wyandot counties are welcoming the arrival of the Tiered Treatment Foster Home program.
The goal of the program is for youth requiring out-of-home care to remain in or near their community in a more specialized setting.
The program will be led by Jenni Zaika, the program lead for all three counties. Zaika will work with licensed family foster homes to begin the process of upgrading to therapeutic homes and recruit new treatment homes.
She will work closely with local families and the children to bring about therapeutic care for children who are often placed out of county, and sometimes out of state.
Melanie Allen, director of Sandusky County Job and Family Services, said in an email earlier this year that many of the children who could benefit from a treatment home will have a history of issues such as substance use and destructive behaviors. They may also struggle in school with attendance, behaviors and grades, Allen said. She said those children also could have various mental health diagnoses, including depression, PTSD, conduct disorder and mood disorders.
Murphy said it is hard to find families for foster children. "It takes a real hard approach to recruit people and get them involved in foster parenting," Murphy said, adding there are 13 foster families in the county. Murphy said half of those foster families have children placed in their homes.
