The local Healthier Buckeye Councils would partner with various non-profits and county agencies, such as Butler County’s Supports to Encourage Low-income Families, to identify the challenges that may be holding back job seekers from employment and help them overcome those obstacles.
“In order to overcome all barriers, (agencies) need to work collaboratively,” Derickson said. “If you try to solve or overcome one hurdle in a person’s life when they may be facing four hurdles, the chance to get these people out of poverty is very challenging.”
Each local council would establish a comprehensive case management and employment program for individuals who seek their help under the bill. The comprehensive case management and employment program was initially part of Gov. John Kasich’s budget and was aimed at helping Ohioans “rise up and out of poverty and into jobs.”
In his second inaugural address earlier this year, Kasich said the state would help people as they were shuffled through a revolving door of giving monthly help without figuring out the problems and hurdles they face. He said this type of programming was important because Ohioans in need are able to “get a helping hand and a hand up so they can reach their God-given potential.”
By putting this portion of that initiative in House Bill 196, it can work in concert with the reformed Ohio Healthier Buckeye Council and the several local Healthier Buckeye Councils, Derickson said — and the local councils will be doing most of the ground work..
“They are the ones that are actually getting it done,” Derickson said of the local councils. “It’s going to be the agencies at the local level that are already serving these individuals’ needs, to help solve these issues.”
The legislation would also create a new grant program that would issue awards to the local Healthier Buckeye councils, but questions on how to fund these grants have kept the bill from receiving a floor vote in the statehouse
There is discussion that money from the Prevention, Retention and Contingency Program — which is one of the state’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families programs — could be used, but officials from some counties across the state have told Derickson they are already using those funds for other programs meeting other needs of the same clientele.
Derickson said PRC money may not be the “the right avenue to take,” and more discussion and research will be needed.
“We don’t want to take money away that is serving the same people,” he said. “We truly are not certain where these funds could come from, but TANF money needs to be part of this funding.”
The bill has had two hearings the House Community and Family Advancement committee, which is chaired by Derickson, with several proponents and interested parties testifying. A third hearing has yet to be scheduled, according to Derickson’s office.
SELF Executive Director Jeffrey Diver testified recently in the House’s Community and Family Advancement committee about the importance of the bill.
“Anytime you can get multiple organizations and systems working together to help lower income people, you’re increasing the chances for success for that individual,” Diver said. “Good things come by folks coming together working for a common purpose.
“So many organizations and systems operate in silos, and we’re all concerned about the individual in our own particular way, but there is often little coordination or collaboration between these different groups that are interested in an individual,” he said.
Derickson said many social service agencies have a mission to help people but sharing information among themselves is something they haven’t done before, mostly because of privacy restrictions.
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