District boosted by social worker

The South Central Local School District has been in the process of creating additional support systems to benefit staff and student wellness this school year. One of those new supports put in place is the recently hired position of district school social worker, filled by Victoria Johnston. Victoria is a recent graduate from The Ohio State University with her master's in social work. Prior to being a part of the South Central Trojan family, she gathered experience working for The Nord Center as a crisis clinician. We welcomed Miss Johnston in as a full-time employee in November of 2021 and she has hit the ground running ever since. A social worker can look different in every district setting, so her arrival here meant creating the job description needed to best benefit our students and their families. If you ask her what her main responsibilities at South Central are she will tell you: "I am responsible for advocating for the emotional, mental, and physical wellbeing of all of our students. I take pride in providing their families with resources and support to promote a happier, healthier, and safer environment for the entire family unit." Her job responsibilities at South Central, specifically, include providing ongoing services to students and their guardians to assist in finding solutions to problems that interfere with learning, providing crisis management, conducting home visits to address social, education and emotional needs, providing group and short-term individual counseling, advocating for student/family needs, coordinating mental health services, maintaining a line of communication with outside agencies and last, but not least, acting as a change agent for school and community policies to ensure equitable and culturally sensitive access for all. In just four short months, with the collaboration of school counselors, principals, the social worker and additional supporting staff, we have added two school food pantries funded by OHgo to support a Hunger Free Weekends Program and summer lunches. Together we have created a house program to promote student mentorship and increase social, emotional, and academic success, while working as a preventive measure against bullying and suicide in our middle school. We are working with MHAS to have staff trained in Sources of Strength to further implement proactive prevention, incorporating regulation stations in classrooms, preparing guidance lessons for all grades K-8, and creating groups for grades K-12 to target social skills, behaviors, classroom organization, coping skills and regulation, dealing with grief along with promoting leadership and empowerment amongst our students. Currently, we are organizing a guest speaker to promote resilience and discussing other ways to enhance community engagement. Here's a quote from Victoria: "I believe that the key to student success is community support, community engagement, and equal access to a broad spectrum of opportunities, which will promote motivation, resilience, and a nurturing environment for social, emotional, and academic learning." Our South Central family has been excited and proud to include the role of district social worker within our school, and we look forward to many more opportunities being brought to our students and their families because of it. Ben Chafee Jr.South Central Local Schools superintendent If you want to submit a Local Voices column, please email it to brandonaddeo@tandemnetwork.com. Columns should be 500-750 words and include the writer's headshot, or other photo.