The mission of the Columbiana County Mental Health and Recovery Services Board is to effectively administer public funds to achieve the highest quality prevention and treatment services, to promote healthy behavior, to support rehabilitation, and to advocate for recovery from mental illnesses and substance use issues.As the newly appointed Director of Prevention and Outreach, I'm excited to embark on a journey to enhance mental health and substance use prevention services in Columbiana County. While I'm still getting acquainted with the landscape, my role involves collaborating with stakeholders to understand existing needs and resources. I'll be facilitating partnerships and assisting in the development of strategies to improve prevention initiatives across the county. Additionally, I'll be involved in organizing outreach activities and community education events to raise awareness and promote healthy behaviors. My focus is on learning, listening, and laying the groundwork for impactful initiatives that benefit our community.

Mercy Health’s Mission is to “extend the compassionate ministry of Jesus by improving the health and well-being of our communities and bring good help to those in need, especially people who are poor, dying and underserved.” Mercy Health delivers compassionate care with one united purpose: to help patients be well in mind, body and spirit. As the largest health system in Ohio and one of the largest nonprofit healthcare ministries in the United States, Mercy Health never stops trying to do an even better job of caring for those they serve. Mercy Health has developed and carried on thousands of community health programs which focus on infant mortality, substance abuse, healthy living and eating, cancer, grieving and other prevalent health needs. Mercy Health Youngstown has developed the Drug Prevention and Education Program to address local youth substance use by building students’ functional knowledge and skills with the use of culturally competent, developmentally appropriate, evidence-based curricula. In this role, I utilized local youth survey data to plan, implement, and evaluate school-based substance use prevention programming. I collaborated with schools in Mahoning County to identify their prevention education needs and selected culturally appropriate, evidence-based prevention curricula for their student populations. By providing direct services to youth in K-12 public school classrooms, Mercy Health worked to build students’ protective factors and preventing and reducing youth substance use in the Mahoning Valley. In addition to direct services, I assisted Mahoning County schools in providing prevention activities such as planning awareness campaigns, providing parent presentations, and leading school staff trainings. I also serveed as a representative of Mercy Health Youngstown on local anti-drug coalitions.

The mission of the Crisis Counseling Assistance and Training Program (CCP) is to assist individuals and communities in recovering from the challenging effects of natural and human-caused disasters through the provision of community-based outreach and psychoeducational services. The CCP is funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and administered by Mercy Health Youngstown to support healthcare associates during the COVID-19 pandemic.In this role, I helped Mercy Health Youngstown associates to understand their reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic, provided access to wellbeing and mental health resources, and conducted workshops to develop associates' healthy coping strategies including: meditation, yoga, and deep breathing.

Selected into the OCPC Development Fellowship – Training & Mentoring Project. This fellowship was offered in collaboration by the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention Association of Ohio (ADAPAO), PreventionFirst!, Ohio University’s Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs, and the Prevention Committee of the Ohio Chemical Dependency Board, with support from the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services. This fellowship was designed as a workforce development initiative to increase the advanced skills capacity of Ohio’s prevention workforce by providing 18 Ohio Certified Prevention Specialists working to earn their Ohio Certified Prevention Consultant (OCPC) credential with various professional development opportunities.In this fellowship I engaged in monthly trainings focused on the Human Resource Management and Fiscal Management content areas required to attain the OCPC credential, participated in quarterly small-group consultation sessions comprised of five fellows and an assigned coach, and received monthly 1-on-1 mentoring sessions with OCPC credentialed mentors through the Ohio Coaching and Mentoring Network (OCAM Network.)

Family Recovery Center is dedicated to providing high quality, cost effective, holistic services addressing chemical addiction, mental health disorders and other health care needs to promote community wellness. Family Recovery Center’s prevention services are primary, directed at youth before they are involved in substance use/abuse, and early intervention, directed at youth who are experimenting, using and abusing substances.In this role, I planned, implemented and evaluated the Aiming High prevention program, maintained files and evaluation tools, collected and submitted data internally for Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) and externally to funders including The Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (OhioMHAS) and the Columbiana County Mental Health and Recovery Services Board. I was also actively involved in pursing and writing grants to sustain our programs and grow our department. I served as the department’s Safety Officer, providing annual safety trainings to staff and handling any incident reports necessary for workplace accidents or injuries.I interviewed, trained and supervised new staff, encouraged professional growth and development, and assisted staff in attaining prevention credentials. I worked collaboratively with local agencies, schools and organizations to promote prevention across the lifespan, and represented the Family Recovery Center Education Department at local, state, and national meetings and trainings.In addition to these responsibilities, I also continued to engage in the activities described in my Prevention Specialist role below.

In this role, I collaborated with 11 Columbiana County school districts to deliver thousands of school aged youth the Aiming High program, an ATOD and violence prevention program targeting students in grades K-6. I facilitated several evidence-based curricula, including: Too Good for Drugs and Violence, Botvin’s LifeSkills, and SecondStep Bullying Prevention. I engaged with the community by representing Family Recovery Center at local health fairs, events, and trainings. I created several educational displays that were exhibited at the annual Columbiana County Fair, and designed various promotional items including t-shirts, flyers, and advertisements for various agency activities and grants.I also co-authored several funded grant proposals from varying funding sources and assisted in submitting biannual reports to the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (OhioMHAS.)

Family Recovery Center’s Problem Gambling grant was funded by the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (OhioMHAS) to educate the public about problem gambling, and decrease the number of community members engaging in problem gambling activities.In this role, I implemented the “What Are Your Odds” problem gambling awareness campaign utilizing various media strategies to educate Columbiana County adults about problem gambling warning signs, responsible gambling practices, and available local and state resources for help. I conducted focus groups to determine how to best reach the community with campaign marketing, developed various digital and print materials for the awareness campaign, and deployed a culturally competent problem gambling media campaign targeting residents of Columbiana County.

Family Recovery Center's Teen Driving Mini Grant was funded by the Ohio Injury Prevention Partnership's Child Injury Action Group (CIAG) to address the CIAG's priority area of Teen Driving. The goals of the grant program were to reduce traffic related injuries and fatalities among teen drivers aged 16-20 in Columbiana County and increase seatbelt usage among the same target population.In this role, I collaborated with local law enforcement agencies, school districts, and the Be Smart Be Safe Traffic Safety Coalition to reach Columbiana County teen drivers and community members. Together we worked to promote and educate the community about safe teen driving, developed safe teen driving media campaign materials to be incorporated into student drivers’ parking pass applications, and sponsored a seatbelt challenge across several county school districts.

Family Recovery Center’s Strategic Prevention Framework State Incentive Grant (SPF SIG) was funded by the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services. Through the use of an evidence-based, systems-change model, Ohio’s Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF) Initiative successfully enhanced the capacity of Columbiana County to build a sustainable, culturally and linguistically competent infrastructure that focused on delaying the onset of alcohol use, reducing underage drinking and alcohol-related problems in the 18-25 year old population.This grant funding allowed for the creation of the Young Adult Alcohol Prevention Initiative (YAAPI); YAAPI implemented media strategies to educate young adults about the harmful use of alcohol and the American Medical Association’s (AMA) guidelines for moderate alcohol use. This strategy aimed to decrease the number of 18-20 year olds consuming alcohol and increase the number of 21-25 year olds consuming alcohol in line with the AMA guidelines.In this role, I filled in during the final stage of the SPF process, Evaluation. I submitted Community Level Instrument paperwork to Ohio’s SPF SIG Evaluation Team (OSET), and represented Columbiana County’s Young Adult Alcohol Prevention Initiative at OhioMHAS’ SPF SIG Celebration Sustainability event. I participated in this final meeting at the Ohio Governor’s Residence to discuss current implementation plans and sustainability efforts as well as highlighting the project’s successes with a poster session and gallery walk.

Family Recovery Center’s Kids Adventure Groups Summer Program was developed in response to a growing need for youth mental health services during the summer months. In this role, I provided an array of services individualized to the mental health needs of school-aged clients in the Kids Adventure Groups Summer Program. I assessed client needs, monitored mental health symptoms, assisted in crisis management and stabilization as needed, and engaged clients in activities that increased their capacity to positively impact their own environment. I worked with each client to focus on their ability to succeed in the community, identify and access needed services, and show improvement in the family and integration and contributions within the community.

Kin & Kids was a grant funded support and advocacy group developed to aid relative child care (kinship care) providers in Columbiana County. In this role, I helped to empower families as they navigated the trials of kinship care. I assisted the Kin & Kids program coordinator in serving client families by attending court hearings and supporting families during custody proceedings, supporting relative caregivers with in-home visits, assessing the families current needs and connecting them to necessary resources. I also assisted in strategic planning for support group development, created and mailed monthly newsletters to program participants, and organized activities for monthly support group meetings.

Catholic Charities Regional Agency Christina House is a domestic violence shelter for women and children in Columbiana County. The program offers crisis intervention, temporary shelter, a victim’s legal advocate including assitance with protection orders, case management and emotional support. Catholic Charities Regional Agency Christina Center provides the community with basic needs assistance, financial education, pregnancy support services, homeless outreach, senior support services and other education and prevention services to individuals, schools, organizations and other concerned groups.In this role, I floated between the Christina House domestic violence shelter and the Christina Center to assist clients as needed. I frequently accompanied the victim advocate and clients to court as they navigated the process of securing protection orders. I assisted clients in preparing for job interviews by helping them find appropriate clothing, practicing interview questions, and connecting them with transportation or childcare. I logged shelter supplies, shopped for necessities, and recieved donations for both the Christina House and Christina Center. I assisted in the Christina Center's community outreach by training East Liverpool City Hospital nurses to recognize signs of domestic abuse and discussed the steps nursing staff can take to better support suspected victims. I also provided "Good touch, Bad touch" sexual abuse prevention education to Southern Local Elementary School students.