Project Strength off to strong start

The Erie County public defender's office is home to a new program that aims to assist families and children that are involved in the Juvenile Court system. Project Strength was launched earlier this year and is grant-funded through the Ohio Supreme Court. There are two areas of focus for this grant. • First, families that are at risk of involvement with children protective services • Second, families that are struggling with school attendance The grant is slated to last for three years. Erie County is one of six counties in Ohio that received this grant to launch a multidisciplinary legal team. The focus of the grant is to remove barriers for families that prevent them from successfully navigating the legal system, to encourage families to take advantage of existing community resources and to promote cross-system cooperation. The other six counties that received this grant include Cuyahoga, Clark, Stark, Summit, and Wayne. The American Bar Association supports multidisciplinary legal teams as best practice. The Ohio Supreme Court is in agreement with this as best practice and supports early intervention. This type of practice results in more positive outcomes for children and families when utilized appropriately. We believe this is the future of family law and are proud to be able to offer this type of support to our clients. One of the main goals of the program is to prevent the removal of children from their homes whenever possible. We want to work to reduce trauma to children and families. Our program also focuses on shortening the length of time a family is involved in the court system, whether it be for truancy or because of children protective services involvement. Project Strength took its first referral in January and has been on a roll ever since. We currently have 75 individuals from 16 families in our program. Each family in our program gains access to an attorney, a licensed social worker and a parent advocate. Each member of the team serves a different purpose and ensures that all family needs are being identified and supported. Cross-system cooperation is a main priority for Project Strength. Erie County is lucky to be able to offer so many resources to its citizens, and we want to be able to connect individuals and families to these wonderful services and agencies. In order to achieve this, our team members have been persistently going out into the community to learn about programs, agencies and services so that we can better help our clients. We have found that truancy can often be the first red flag for a family that is struggling with other barriers such as housing, transportation or mental health concerns among other things. Our social worker and parent advocate work with these families to find solutions to the barriers that are causing the child to miss school. Project Strength has been working closely with the school districts in Erie County to address the rising concerns over school attendance issues. COVID has led to an increased need for these services. Project Strength is a voluntary program that anyone can make a referral to, including a family, themselves. Although our team supports our families in the court system, we are not a court program. If you have any questions or would like more information please contact the office at 419-627-6620 and ask to speak to a Project Strength staff member.