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Lucas County Children’s Services highlights prevention programs aimed at keeping children with families
Summary
Agency director outlined prevention initiatives — Parent Empowerment Institute, prevention specialists for THC-exposed infants, and Ohio START — that the county says are intended to help children remain safely at home and reduce out-of-home placements.
Chanda Bridal, director of social services at Lucas County Children's Services, told the Toledo City Council Public Safety and Criminal Justice Reform Committee on June 18 that many families the agency serves remain intact: in 2024, 44% of children the agency worked with were living in their own homes.
Bridal described three prevention efforts aimed at keeping children safely with family: the Parent Empowerment Institute (PEI), the prevention specialist assigned to infants prenatally exposed to THC, and Ohio START (Sobriety, Treatment and Reducing Trauma), a model that pairs a caseworker with a family peer mentor.
"We have a prevention specialist assigned to all families when a referral is received by our agency due to marijuana positive births," Bridal said. She told the…
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