Mahoning County Children Services is one of seven counties in the state of Ohio that operates agency run group homes for children within the county. Mahoning County Children Services partners with The Steel Valley Homes for Youth, Inc. and the Swanston Foundation to provide group home services in our community. The agency operates three group homes located in the city of Youngstown with each group home housing up to 10 residents ranging from 6 to 17 years of age. The homes are licensed by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. The residents attend local schools and participate in activities within the community. There are 33 youth leaders (full and part time) responsible for the direct care of the residents, three cooks, and one maintenance worker working in the homes. The homes themselves are managed by three group life managers who are responsible to oversee the day-to-day operation of the homes.

This program requires the support of community resources such as counseling agencies, the school systems, and social service organizations. In addition, volunteer groups such as Warriors, Inc., the Boardman Poland Junior League, and The Difference Makers have dedicated exceptional talent and resources to our group home program. These are just a few examples of the community partners needed to support services to this population.

The group homes are one level of care within the Residential Department. The next level of care is residential placement, which is purchased placement from private providers. Children who exhibit emotional and behavioral problems which require an intense level of supervision and treatment are referred for residential placements. These cases are managed by three caseworkers within the Residential Department. These workers also monitor children in specialized foster homes and treatment facilities.

Mahoning County Children Services is proud to be part of an exciting new pilot project, Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care. In partnership with Homes for Kids, the Multidimensional Treatment Foster Home Program is being developed. In this program, children who are at the level of care of group homes and traditional residential care are placed in a treatment foster home. While in the foster home, they are provided with a skills coach who does one-on-one activities with the resident while modeling appropriate behavior. There is an individual therapist assigned to the resident to work through emotional issues and a family therapist to work with the biological family. Homes for Kids provides a supervisor to coordinate services for the child, foster family, and biological family.

The foster family is especially trained to use a point and level system to address inappropriate behaviors. The program places one child in each foster home so that each child receives individual attention from the foster parents, skills coach, individual therapist, family therapist, and supervisor. The ultimate goal of this program is to provide an alternative to long-term residential care while addressing dysfunctional behavior patterns of kids and dysfunctional family systems that sustain the poor behavior. Mahoning County Children Services is one of nine counties participating in this project.